Chinese student discusses cultural differences, love for MSU

Beijing is the capital of the People’s Republic of China and a large city full of opportunities for their youth. The city plays a vital role in China’s history and to this day continues to be a center of China’s art and culture.

Plant biology sophomore Yi Liu has her roots in Beijing. Although she is not a stranger to studying abroad, given her year spent in Finland, her college years are the first that she has studied in the United States.

Like most people from China, Liu is an only child. Chinese governmental policies regulate the number of children a couple may have expressing a preference of a limit of one child per family.

“There was a girl in my class that had a brother,” Liu explained. “We were all like ‘Oh my God, you have a brother? Can we see him?’ and we all went over to her house to see.”

The one-child-per-family policy does allow exceptions. Overall, it depends on the parents. If two only children get married, they are allowed to have two kids, while if the man has a brother and the wife is an only child the couple is allowed only one child.

As most children do not have siblings, they develop a close bond to their cousins, often considering them surrogate siblings. If an only child has two male cousins and one female cousin, they would say “I have two brothers and one sister.”

China’s government consists of several parties, with one of them overseeing the others as well as the country. Although there is an election to determine who holds that position in the party, the citizens of China cannot vote, only the other members of the party determine the results. The basis of the government was modeled from Russia.

“The government doesn’t allow you to not like them,” Liu said.

The regulations for the school system is also strictly organized by the party in power. It is structured in a way for the youth of China to get the most of their education. But if Liu had to choose between studying at the universities in China or studying at MSU, she’d choose MSU.

“Here people want to learn. (In China), many stop studying once they reach the universities because the pressure is less,” Liu said.

The pressure on the youth in China is high until the students reach college level. Students will study subjects such as physics and chemistry by middle school and are well on their way with the English language by the age of 9. Calculators are not used for math — everything is memorized. Students are expected to arrive an hour early for school to practice their problems as well as stay up late studying. It is not rare to have so much homework that a student is up past midnight studying.

“When (teachers) know you have three days for a weekend, they give more homework. It’s worse in the summer,” Liu said.

In the classroom, teachers move from room to room while the students stay in one room. A typical classroom size consists of around 40 students. The teachers are able to come up with problems quickly and the students are expected to answer just as quickly. All exams are timed and it is understood before starting that the student will not have enough time to finish. This is often why students work on memorizing tricks and answers prior to exams to make it easier.

“Here the teachers and students are sort of equal. (In China), the teachers are above the students,” Liu said. “You must respect them and they are always right. In Finland a teacher said ‘thank you’ when I turned in my homework and I was surprised. They don’t do that in China.”

In middle school everyone has the same classes that consist of a lot of science, math and the English language. When in high school students are allowed to choose if they want to continue studying science or study more art. After this choice, the classes are structured accordingly. Continuing with science and math is usually the popular way to proceed. Liu said the majority of Chinese international students at MSU are going into economy and finance and said she is considered odd for pursuing biology.

“I just think my mind is more for biology,” Liu explained.

When students do have free time, on those rare occasions, Liu said the popular thing to do is “KTV,” or karaoke. Besides karaoke, girls go shopping and guys like to play basketball, just as they do here in the U.S. However, the main focus is always school.

“Teachers used to say even if you stop, others keep going forward so you are going backwards,” Liu said.

Students don’t work and study, their job is to be a student. There are those who also participate in sports teams, such as soccer and basketball, but not football. These students have fuller, busier schedules than others.

Liu hopes to return to China after graduation to help work with the environment. In the meantime she is enjoying her time at MSU.

“You can do anything here,” Liu said with a smile.