The Fudan Team

大家好! Greetings from the third LSE-Fudan cohort!

This is a relatively brief post/ smoke-signal to confirm that we’ve indeed successfully started the second year here at Fudan. We arrived from nearly every corner of the globe at the end of August and have settled in and made Shanghai our new home.

To the second cohort, we can’t thank you enough for all the work you did on this blog! It’s really come a long way and hopefully we’ll also do it justice.

To the incoming fourth cohort, welcome to the LSE and congratulations on finishing your formatives! (I’m guessing you’re at about that point by now.) We can confirm what previous cohorts told us, London is fabulous and the year goes by way too quickly! Before you all know it, one of you will be in my shoes, writing the first posting from Shanghai.

To any readers who are considering this program: I am working on a good email address that can be used in the future to field queries but for now, please refer to the FAQ section and please leave us any questions in the comment section.

Despite the fact that most of us are barely recovered from having written the first dissertation, the proposal for our second one is due in less than a week. I’d like to do a post in the near future just on arrival tips, but for now a good one would be more of a warning- it’s not a bad idea at all to start thinking in broad thematic terms about that second dissertation!

Tags:   Arrival · Fudan University · Third Cohort1 Comment

It’s been a year since I landed in Shanghai. I’ve graduated from both LSE and Fudan. I’m older, wiser, a snotty self-declared China expert by now (not). And, I’m still in Shanghai.

All eleven of us from the second cohort successfully passed our thesis defense in May. It was a 4-hour ordeal, very formal, very nerve-wracking, but the best part is they tell you then and there whether you pass or not. No drawn-out agony, ladies and gentlemen. And in June, we got our lovely diplomas. Note: your photo gets pasted onto the actual diploma, so make sure you look your best when they ask to take your picture “for official record purposes”. If you care about that sort of stuff, of course.

So, where are we now?

Three of us – me, Marta, and Esther – chose to stay in Shanghai. Good news for everyone thinking about doing this course: I loved it here so much I didn’t want to leave, just yet. I hope you’ll feel the same. It’s one world, to be staying up near Fudan and being part of the university; yet another to be living downtown in the French Concession, working while studying Chinese (and Shanghainese) part-time. I feel like in a year and a month, I’ve grown up both in and with Shanghai. That’s how fast this city changes. Watch it change. Stay. Marta is studying Chinese as well, and writing, and Esther has donned a business suit and is working for a chamber of commerce in an editorial capacity.

The rest of us are all over the globe. France, Trinidad, London, Los Angeles, Jakarta, New York, and I’m probably missing a few other places. We’ve been truly global till the very end.

Being in Shanghai, I had the great honor of meeting the latest cohort. Here’s a photo of dear ol’ KJ, myself, and Jonas from the third cohort, at the welcome banquet Fudan held last month.

I will still update this blog from time to time, with Shanghai tips. Otherwise, am blogging at Shanghai Shiok. Will leave the Fudan news to the new cohort, whenever the torch passes into your new, eager hands.

All the best,

Christine

Tags:   graduation · life after Shanghai · new cohort2 Comments

… so please excuse the lack of posts.

Our Fudan thesis is due on Wednesday, April 28. So, 13 days more.

One thing for you guys to take note of for next year: this thesis is apparently supposed to be 15,000 words long. We only learned this 4 days ago; we’ve been working on the assumption that it was a minimum of 10,000 words, since this is what we’d been told back in September. (My supervisor still thinks I’m supposed to write 20,500 words.)

It’s still freezing in Shanghai, spring doesn’t want to come. It fell to a low of 6°C yesterday. Bet you’re nice and warm in London!

Since we rarely do update this blog, I point you to the blogs of some of the 2008-2010 cohort:

…in Shanghai (Marta Cooper)
Foreign Exposure (Catherine Lewis)
The Cultural Schizophrenic (myself)

Tags: 1 Comment

Happy 2010 and the Year of the Tiger to you!

Most of us are not in Shanghai right now. Classes at Fudan ended before Christmas, and only resume on March 1.

I’m sure my classmates have used these two months well – visiting home, working on their dissertations, completing the required internship, contemplating what to do after June when we graduate.

As for myself, I have a lot of catching up to do.

More updates soon!

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Hi Everyone,

Today is the last day of classes for those who are taking electives outside of the Journalism School. Has one semester passed already? We are off for the next two months (until late-February/early March) – they’re not kidding around with vacations here.

We’re all trying to make good use of our holidays (no more kicking back on the beach for months on end – oh wait, we never did that, even in undergrad). While a few of us will be away from Shanghai the entire break, others are spending time in the city undergoing intensive daily Mandarin courses, as well as continuing internships. As for myself, I’ll be in Singapore for much of January fooling around doing research for my next dissertation, something to do with Chinese identities of young Singaporeans, and media (of course).

Time certainly hasn’t crawled, and second term will fly by just as quickly.

Anyway, hope all is well in London (snow and all). I’ll leave you with this article on the perspectives of foreign students on life in China/Shanghai, written by our own Fudan Global Marta Cooper for Shanghai Daily. No, I’m not sharing this link just because yours truly is in the feature; it should give you an idea of the challenges you should expect to face here. Good food for thought.

Happy holidays, and happy 2010 if we don’t blog before that. Cheers!

P.S. I almost forgot to add some sort of food/drink picture. I have many recent ones of stewed chicken, braised eggplant, and mango pudding… however, on a wintery Shanghai evening, the best food may simply be a hot bowl of instant noodles.

Tags:   Cultural Differences · Fudan University · Shanghai1 Comment

Well, well. This blog certainly needed a clean up, and an evening in the bitterly cold eastern China wind provided the perfect setting.

At first glance, it seems as though nothing has changed, but do not be fooled: we have a new-and-improved FAQ section, which we will add to if you have any queries we’ve missed. The tags have been edited so you can navigate a little more easily, and contact details have been updated. Plus, we’ve added a host of fantastic China news-related links for you to wade through censor-free.

Any tips or ideas, you know the email: team2@fudanteam.org.

Tags:   Admin4 Comments

It’s been more than 2 months for us in Shanghai, and the honeymoon period of sunny skies and lazy days are over. Work is piling up, and it seems like the whole world is due on November 17, when we have to submit a 3,000 word essay (an analysis of Chinese/international media coverage of the PRC’s 60th anniversary) for our Chinese Journalism course, write a final exam for that same class, and submit detailed dissertation proposals. Myself and two others also have to put together a presentation on the Cultural Revolution for our Societal Transformation class on November 18. Looks like I’ll just be seeing the four walls of my room this weekend. Yes, blogging right now counts as my study break. (And just so you, future cohort, know how papers are spaced out – the due dates for other first semester essays are November 30, Dec 16, Jan 10, Jan 31, and the end of February.)

It’s also time to start applying for internships for those who want to work here during winter break. (A minimum 2-week internship is required for graduation; counts as 1 credit.) Fudan has links to Shanghai Daily (local English paper), the Shanghai Media Group, and a French PR company, so those are our internship possibilities if we decide to arrange something through the school. I’m trying to be over-adventurous by looking for media/marketing/NGO internships in Beijing, Guangzhou, or anywhere else in China, but haven’t been too successful (most of the ones I looked at outside of Shanghai require Mandarin skills, or a commitment of at least 3 months). But you don’t have to stay in mainland China – internships anywhere in the world count towards course credit, so some classmates are doing theirs in the States and Hong Kong.

People have also been falling ill due to the change in weather. According to the Weather Network it’s currently 7°C outside (and 12°C in London!); my ice cold hands and feet say it might as well be -1°C! I don’t know why I assumed a Shanghai winter would be warmer than a London one. My housemate didn’t bring any winter apparel with her and had to go out today in a light trench coat – don’t make the same mistake, future Fudaners! Bring the wool with you.

I hope I don’t sound overly dismal. Being in Shanghai is still awesome, especially since we discovered the joy known as bullfrogs in a wok. There’s an extremely popular restaurant right below us on Handan Road whose specialty is their spicy bullfrog dish. We waited 2 hours for a table last week, and it was well worth it to gorge on that meaty tenderness that tastes like a cross between chicken and fish.

Spot the frog bits. Fuel for the cold days ahead!

Tags:   Academics · Food · Internships1 Comment

Dear 2009/11 cohort,

While my classmates cover the logistics of moving to Shanghai, talk about managing/overcoming culture shock, and generally share their vast wisdom and life experiences with you, my one-track mind has me blogging about:

“The food,
Once again, food
Fabulous food,
Glorious food!”

Yeah. These are the real reasons you are coming to Shanghai:

1) Xiaolongbao (小龙包).

Fancy restaurant dumplings.

Shanghai’s famous soup dumplings, usually pork-filled (my favourite is the seafood/crab variation). This is how my housemate has taught me to eat them – gently pick up dumpling with chopsticks, place dumpling on spoon, pierce skin of dumpling with chopsticks and pick it up again, let soup/dumpling juice drip into spoon, sip soup, eat dumpling, sigh with joy. If you are particularly hungry/greedy you can also stuff the whole dumpling into your mouth and risk getting burnt.

Street dumplings. A whoppin’ RMB 3.50 (£0.31) for 8 dumplings.

(If your chopstick skills are quite shoddy, please remedy this before heading to Shanghai – a friend of mine clumsily grabbed her dumpling with her chopsticks, prematurely piercing through the skin as it made its way to her bowl, thus wasting that glorious soup by dribbling it all over the table. NOT amused.)

2) Hairy crabs (毛蟹).

RMB 10 (£0.90) per crab. Increase in cholesterol level, here I come.

October is a great time to be in Shanghai, since it’s hairy crab season (mid-autumn till early winter). The chilly change in weather causes the little critters to get a bit lazier, fatten up, and produce more delicious roe. Crab-eating has become a city-wide sport – every time I meet up with a Shanghainese friend, we exchange details of how many hairy crabs we last had the privilege of eating, and the manner in which we devour them (“I pull off all the legs first, suck the roe, bite into the body!” “No, save the best for last, legs first, then claw, then body!”). My heart bleeds for those allergic to shellfish.

3) Other stuff.

Like stewed duck noodles.

And baiji (steamed chicken).

And a lot more I need to remember to photograph.

Anyway, all the best settling into London and the LSE!

P.S. Two food recommendations for your time in London – New World, 1 Gerrard Place, Chinatown, for old-fashioned trolley service dim sum, and Raavi Kebab, 125 Drummond Street for the best Indian food in London (credit to some Passfield Hall girls for discovering it).

Tags:   Food1 Comment

Ni men hao ma!

First of all, a warm welcome to the 2009/11 cohort! We hope you enjoy your year at LSE. It will seem like a daunting task at the start but you will soon miss it. Be prepared for an intense but (cue technical terminology) intellectually stimulating experience! Outside studying, I’d obviously advise you to take advantage of living in London (for those of you who are new to the city) as well as hitting the European continent that is on your doorstep; this will be the quickest year of your lives!

We have been in Shanghai for what feels like a lifetime but is actually barely two months. The past eight weeks or so have been tumultuous, exciting, frustrating, interesting and surprising. Trying to balance exploration and discovery, culture shock, bureaucracy, amazing food (see Christine’s post) and plunging ourselves into a new world that most of us may never fit into (since most of us are not Chinese) has been both difficult and liberating. My personal advice to the next cohort is to land in the East with no expectations: every preconceived idea you have will be squashed, and any time you feel you have grasped one aspect of the culture, the rug will quickly be pulled from beneath you. As a result, your first month or two here may be frustrating, but once they’ve passed, you’ll never look back. Arrive only with yourself and as much Mandarin as you can squeeze into this year at LSE. 

But do come prepared for a very different academic experience from the rigorous one you will be absorbed in this year. Our classes here are generally longer, more narrative and with much more crossover between topics. Rather than the British system of dividing classes into lectures and tutorials, here our classes usually consist of lectures with occasional presentations. Additionally, few of them are assessed by exam (yay!), with most consisting of 3-4,000 word essays. Further, we’d all advise beginners to get Mandarin tutors when you’re in Shanghai (most of us have four hours a week in addition to the 2-hour language class at Fudan). You’ll have no trouble finding tutors or Chinese students who simply want to do a language exchange. 

We’re in the process of compiling a handbook for you all so please don’t worry, all the information will be given to you ASAP (and we will get to work on tidying up the FAQ section of the blog). Just focus on making the most of London, it is a unique and amazing place. 

If any of you have any questions, please email us – team2@fudanteam.org – and we can reply to you individually.

Sending bests from the East,

Marta

Tags:   China · Cultural Differences · Fudan University · LSE · ShanghaiNo Comments.

So. Today was our Orientation at Fudan, which started with a welcoming ceremony for incoming graduate students (all 4000 of us) at Zhen Da Stadium. As it was conducted in Mandarin, what we can tell you about it was it included much enthusiastic welcome clapping (热烈欢迎 – re lie huan ying), the presentation of academic awards for previous student and faculty achievements, the singing of the school song (which we intend to learn – all we know now is “Fu-Dan, Fu-Dan, Fu-Dan-Dan-Fu-Dan!”) and what seemed to be the school pledge accompanied with raised right fists. It was an interesting introduction, although the significance of the fists is lost on us.

After lunch, we made our way to the Journalism School where KJ and Prof. Hong Bin gave us the lowdown on what is in store for us for the coming term. Let’s skip over the academic details now – WE ARE REALLY EXCITED about the upcoming class trip to Qian Dao Hu (Thousand Island Lake) next week. It’s been barely a week since handing in our dissertations in London and moving to China, and a mini-break is just what we need (sigh of relief and happiness). It’s brilliant that KJ and the school organised this.

Later that evening was a reception for journalism school students. Unfortunately, the three of us had to miss it thanks to a rudely burst pipe in our kitchen. One of us had gone home to change her shoes for the reception and walked through the front door to be greeted by a piercing PING! and ensuing carnage. See photos. Luckily, as three resourceful young women faced with a quickly escalating volume of water resembling the Yangtze River in their living room and a repairman with a convenient phobia of said water, we managed to use every absorbent material to dam the flow. Needless to say, we missed the reception, missed dinner (x+0! a.k.a. #(@(#)Q#!!!) and spent 2 hours sitting in the dark (had switched off the mains in fear of electrocution) waiting for yet another plumber (with no phobia of water) to arrive. Did we mention today is the 4th? Hmmm…

So, the joys and woes of starting life in a foreign country. Take the bitter with the sweet lah, after all, today was also a day of accomplishments: figured out campus, got introduced to J-School, met Brendan Smith (LSE Rep for China) who was encouraging us through our pre-studies jitters, and we now sit here on a dry, clean Dettoled floor with electricity and Internet and a new pipe on its way.

Love,

Kate, Chris, Marta

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