Berkley Center

Studying in the Chinese language in Shanghai, China for a Chinese-born American is a cultural and identity whirlwind. I’ve found that not only are the Chinese beliefs distinct from most Western principles, but also that their entire system of beliefs and ordering processes is different. The Chinese perspective is dialectic, while the traditional Western perspective is more Aristotelian, logical, linear analytical thinking. Shanghai itself has become known for its graceful melding of the two principles; there is no better place to evaluate how both have shaped the spiritual and cultural identity within a developing China. A developing China, which clings to tradition, yet continually looks to Western ideas and models.

Even after only a few weeks, I’ve found my own ideas about my understanding of Western culture from an Eastern perspective continually changing and reshaping. In the coming weeks, I want to explore not only my own cultural identity as an adopted Chinese-American, but also China’s youth’s changing cultural and spiritual identity within the context of both Eastern and Western influences.

Living at East China Normal University will enable me to truly engross myself in the experience of China’s youth. These are the students, who in the next few years will enter the Chinese job market, mostly as teachers, and will be educating the next generation of Chinese youth about language, politics, science, philosophy, etc. The potential that they wield is enormous and untapped.