10 Reasons Why You Should Apply For Yenching Academy

10 Reasons Why You Should Apply ForYenching AcademyPosted by admin on July 8, 2014. Leave a comment.

BEIJING – I am as excited as you are that the new Yenching

Academy of Peking University (PKU) [北京大学燕京学堂] has been

successful established and is now recruiting its first 100 graduate

students. This will be the opportunity of a life-time for you, and I strongly

encourage any up-and-coming China scholar to apply for this program.

You will only regret if you didn’t send your application form:

“The Yenching Academy offers a 1-year Master of Chinese Studies

program (in English) designed to prepare an elite class of future leaders

to meet the challenges of the 21st century global landscape.” –PKU

GO TO YENCHING ACADEMY WEBSITE AND FIND APPLICATION

FORMS

Your author had been a visiting student at PKU from 2004 to 2006, and

returned for his doctoral studies from 2007 to 2012. Back then, there was

nothing like the Yenching scholarship; academic poverty was a big issue

(it still is for many Chinese students), letting alone PKU’s guerrilla

bureaucracy (graduation procedures required eight signatures and seals).

There was also the existential threat of sky-rocketing rents outside

campus (now exceeding $1,200/month for a one-bedroom apartment).

As to the interview process, we didn’t even use Skype back in 2006, so

there was a lot of traveling back-and-forth (obtaining visa was much

easier then, though). Luckily (for the new generation of students), Peking

University has addressed the issues of funding, housing, and guidance by

creating this first-class residential scholarship program.

DOWNLOAD YENCHING BROCHURES FROM CORNELL

UNIVERSITY (PDF)

So, here are my personal 10 Reasons Why You Should Apply For

Yenching Academy of Peking University:

1. Peking University is the leading institution of higher education in

China.

2. Yenching Academy awards the prestigious ‘Yenching Scholar’ title

on top of the usual Peking University Alumnus status (both are life-long

privileges). Tip: Do a research on name and origin of “Yenching” to

understand its historical significance.

3. Beijing is China’s political, cultural, and financial capital. It has 21

million citizens, more than Australia’s entire population. The student

district in the north-west, Haidian, hosts 168 universities. The intellectual

atmosphere and sheer concentration of talents will blow your mind.

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4. Full scholarship is offered, which is rare. Also, expect “quality”

accommodation and teaching facilities, at least relative compared to the

majority of the other 20 million or so students enrolled at Chinese

universities. This program is so selective; you will feel like a Chosen one,

an X-Men, a Confucian ‘Junzi’…

5. Meet some of China’s most renowned scholars, cultural masters, and

famous intellectuals from around the world, letting alone world leaders,

businessmen, and top politicians. (PKU recently asked visitors Michelle

Obama, the America’s First Lady, and Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General

of the United Nations, to write endorsements for Yenching Academy,

which they did!)

6. A degree from Peking University is a door opener in China and the

world, comparable to a degree from Harvard, only better.

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7. The PKU campus is one of the most beautiful in China –lots of

gardens (incl. the old Yan Yuan, Minghe Yuan, Jingchun Yuan, and

Langrun Yuan, lakes (incl. the Unnamed Lake), plenty of historical spots,

histories, and traditional architectures. The Academy is located at the

very center of the university, with newly renovated facilities. PKU has

over 30 restaurants/canteens, several hotels (including the 5-star Lake

View Guesthouse), a theater, several supermarkets, bookstores, a post-

office, banks and ATMs, print services, sport facilities, a hospital.

Wudaokou, where PKU is located, is brimming with thousands of cafes,

fitness clubs, and book shops. Yes, it also has a vibrant night life. What is

more, Zhongguancun, the Silicon valley of China, lies just 1 km to the

south, boasting New China: electronics, lavish boutiques, shopping malls,

3D cinemas, and hundreds of towering apartment blocks stuffed with

start-up companies.

8. Eat Chinese food every day; or try a new restaurant every day. Your

scholarship allowance will make this easily affordable. Also, travel during

the semester breaks. There is great food everywhere, and of fantastic

regional variety. Try Tibetan and Muslim food!

9. Make valuable connections or “guanxi” that will last forever. Your

classmates will be “future world leaders” by definition (and program

requirement). Register for think tanks in town such as ThinkInChina –a

EU-China initiative. Also, don’t forget you are studying among the

Chinese elites at PKU. Have you ever felt intimidated by the academic

aptitude of East-Asians in general? Well, PKU is their mother-lode!

Getting into the Yenching Academy program is like winning the social

lottery. [harrumph…].

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10. The time is right for China; and so it is for you: China has already

surpassed the United States in terms of GDP adjusted to inland prices. It

is determined to create a super-elitist education that puts China in the

center of global academic excellence. Being the spearhead of a new era in

world history, international relations, global culture, and economics, China

is the best place to be right now.

Here are some survival tips that you may want to consider before embarking on

this program at Peking University:

1. The program is taught in English, so you will have less opportunity to

master your Chinese. Also, your classmates (and the expat

community) may be more “interesting” people (from the point of view

of your “international” career), BUT, remember, they won’t help your

Chinese skills much. Also, mingling too much with the expat

community in Beijing may be fun (the parties, the activism, the hubris,

the snobbism, the arrogance), it can easily become a Faustian pact of

Anglophone complacency –in particular for those among you who

would rather like to emerge completely in the Chinese culture for that

year (Remember, the program is essentially humanities-centered). It

may help to arrive in Beijing weeks before the program starts and/or

plan for a longer stay after it ends.

2. China censors a lot of information. Sign up for a VPN (Virtual Private

Network) before you leave for China, so that you can access US

internet monopolies such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. which

are blocked in China. On the other hand, well, try the Chinese services

like Baidu, Sina Weibo, Tencent WeChat, Tudou, QQ, Renren, Taobao,

and many more. This is highly recommendable anyway, since it will

improve your Chinese skill and knowledge incredible fast.

3. Get your hands on a copy of The East-West Dichotomy –available in

book shop and internet stores in China everywhere. Just saying.

4. Plan ahead. A one-year fast-track master program, even at Yenching

Academy, is too-short (your peers at PKU normally spend 3 years in a

Master program, just so that you know) – so you will have to apply for

job opportunities or a doctoral program during that year. (If you want

to get your “boshi” (PhD) degree in China, this is the perfect

opportunity for you to approach the professors.) In addition, visit the

PKU Stanford Center, the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies,

and the brand-new Worldethics Institute Beijing, and mark global

events such as the Beijing Forum in your calendar. Once on campus,

find out about important public lectures at lectures.pku.edu.cn (works

only with a PKU-account).

5. Beware of the bombast. That is easier said than done. Even Harvard

University at times looks whimsical and provincial compared to Peking

University. Europe, meanwhile, with the exception of Oxbridge in the

UK, has no answer to Chinese elite universities. Moreover, China is an

autocratic society where its top leaders are accountable to no one,

meaning they can and will throw splendid ceremonies and conferences

which you probably never experienced before (and will always want to

come back for). To the savage critics, phrases like “nationalism” and

“ethnic chauvinism” easily come to mind. To be true, the cultural

engineers and faculty of Yenching Academy are first and foremost

celebrating and congratulating themselves: “internationally reputed

academic luminaries,” “most renowned and influential,” and “fellows

with worldwide recognition.” Effectuating Xi Jinping’s notion of

‘conference diplomacy’, PKU’s president Wang Enge and his sages are

obsessed with inviting foreign celebrities and super-scholars (only

world leading universities qualify) to witness the spectacle of China’s

cultural rejuvenation -anxious and aghast. “Why don’t we have 5 star

hotels at our university?” or “Why can’t we build world-class programs

like this overnight?” –those are common reactions from German,

Japanese, and Australian professors your author gathered. [Read this

critical account by Professor Shigeto Sonoda] It is the Who-is-who of

China scholarship that attended several precluding international

symposiums, donation ceremonies, and conferences leading up the

inaugural ceremony on May 5, 2014. Already, the academic world –

especially in the Pacific region- is enviously comet-trailing Peking

University, trying to book seats in the front row. Will the expectation

match the pomp? Who knows. One thing is for sure, once you are

accepted here, there will be a lot of prestige, name-dropping, status-

anxiety, and valuable insights into China’s psyche that will put you out

of your humble orbit permanently.

6. Ah, and yeah, if you feel lost and overwhelmed in this country-sized

city, read some Beijing Survival Tips from Kaiser Kuo and Ryan

McLaughlin. (Works even better in hindsight.)

Image credits: east-west-dichotomy.com

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Thorsten J. Pattberg,

Peking University

(2013)

***

Dr. Thorsten J. Pattberg (裴德思 Pei Desi) is a

German writer, linguist, and cultural critic. He

graduated from The Institute of World Literature,

Peking University, and is the author of The East-

West Dichotomy (2013), Shengren (2011), Inside

Peking University (2012), and the forthcoming

Knowledge is a Polyglot (2014). He is currently a

Visiting Fellow at The Institute for Advanced

Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo.

To keep up to date with the news you can also

follow me on Twitter: @worldethics; at Big Think: Dragons and Pandas;

or my other blog: You’ve Heard About It.

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