A freshman of PKU School of International Studies, Yang is one of the outstanding Thai students enrolled this year. Unlike other Thai students, he has more twists and turns of life. Although his parents both died early, Yang, determined to study in China long ago, would got a chance to visit China during high school time if only the Thai official had approved his passport regardless of his ethnic minority origin. Nonetheless, he never gave up his dream. Working very hard, he earned the first prize in a Chinese competition held by the Confucius Institute of Chulalongkorn University. Yet the same passport problem came again, even though all admission representatives from PKU were highly impressed by Yang extraordinary performance and offered him a full scholarship. Fortunately, Princess Sirindhorn granted him a passport with visa after Yang appealed to her in a letter. Thanks to Princess Sirindhorn and PKU, studying at this cosmopolitan city and viewing the world from a broader international point becomes Yang’s reality now.

 

Zhewen Luo: back to China, belonging to CCER
Having a typical European appearance but a fluent spoken Chinese, this is Zhewen Luo, a master degree graduate of Paris Tech and now a PhD student at PKU CCER. He said this long overseas trip to China is like returning home. Absolutely amazing is what he said until it turns out that he has lived in China for the past three years. Luo’s wonderful story began with his exchange to China when studying at Paris Tech. The occasion made him enchanted by China’s economic development and he realized that in order to get a most satisfactory research achievement about Chinese monetary policy, he should come to China to acquire the most local and international academic training of top quality. Hence, he chose PKU CCER without hesitation rather than other institutes in the west. Finally, he succeeded in getting a full scholarship offer from Chinese government and now the grand academic palace is waiting for him to discover.

 

Miaozhong Ma: loving physics, loving PKU
Having lived in the campus for four year’s undergraduate study, Miaozhong Ma is going to stay another couple of years to continue her PhD program at PKU School of Physics. She would like a career of doing academic research in physics, so receiving PKU’s admission as a recommended student is just her ideal. With a big smile, Ma said modestly that things were quite different when she was a freshman, as the courses were too hard for her to catch up at first. However, the pressure did not dampen her perpetual enthusiasm but motivated her to keep working hard and getting higher scores. Now, with a great improvement, she is on her way again pursuing her love, her physics.

 

Hiromi Ebihara: wishing Japan and China be friends forever
53 year-old Hiromi should be special enough among this year’s international students. Talking about why she has come here to study Chinese at such an age, she reviewed her former experience of following her husband to work in China for four years, during which she became deeply interested in the land and language here. However, she felt sorry about having had no time to learn Chinese but for raising her children’s sake. More than a decade has passed since then, and what Hiromi misses the most is returning to China to learn Chinese. Now that her dream has come true, her friend Mrs. Jia Huixuan should not be forgotten because it is Mrs. Jia who helped Hiromi to get the admission by acting as a guarantor. Jia is a professor of Japanese studies at PKU and a fellow of China-Japan Friendship Association. After meeting each other at an activity, their friendship grew rapidly. Deeply moved by Hiromi’s affection for China, Mrs. Jia, as she had done before for many other Japanese good friends, offered Hiromi a helping hand. Above all, what they believed is that Chinese and Japanese need more communication and understanding particularly about each country’s current development, and they both agree to promote the friendship.

 

Translated by Lin Kun