“Do you consider yourself a Russian or a Chinese?”

“Which country do you feel more attached to, Russia or China?”

“When you said ‘we,’ do you mean Russians or Chinese?”

…

These are all questions that Vika often gets asked about.

In this episode, we talked to Victoria Khu (Vika), a Russian-born Chinese who was born and raised in Siberia. She is the co-founder and president of SCOLAR Network, a platform affiliated to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Secretariat that aims at connecting young leaders from the 18 SCO countries, including China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, etc. SCOLAR organizes cultural events to expose people to different cultures of 18 SCO countries as well as entrepreneurial conferences to bring together business leaders and young professionals. Vika is also a TEDx speaker and a member of the Global Shapers Community, an initiative of the World Economic Forum.

Hongxiang Huang graduated from Fudan University and holds an MPA in development practice from Columbia University. In 2014, he started China House in Kenya with the goal of connecting Chinese overseas investment with global sustainable development through research and community engagement. China House works closely with world-renowned global research institutions, NGOs, and private enterprises on research, conservation, education, and development projects, making an impact over 20 countries across 4 continents. In 2018, Huang was nominated by Forbes China as a “30 Under 30” in the social enterprise category.

In today’s episode, Huang shared the story of founding China House, his work at the China Africa Project, some challenges China House has faced during the pandemic, and his hopes and plans for China House in 2021.

In this new episode, we invited Liting Liu to share with us her stories about the pressure that women experience in the workplace, family, and society due to pregnancy, family duties, and other’s expectations. A major topic we covered is related to unequal job opportunities for men and women in the Chinese labor market, especially when females are rejected because of their gender identity.

Furthermore, we talked about how women are constantly urged to get married by their family, Liting’s opinion on the real meaning of gender equality and the ways to achieve it. By highlighting Liting’s experience on these subjects, we hope to connect women from different backgrounds who have faced the same issues and help you better understand gender and social issues in contemporary Chinese society.

In this new episode, our special host Yuanyuan Fang, the former President of Brown China Summit, invited François and Heidi, the co-founders of the Cambridge University China Forum, to share with us their experiences and inspiration of co-founding the Cambridge China Forum. The Cambridge University China Forum (CUCF) is a student-run society at Cambridge University committed to fostering constructive discussions on China. By gathering experts from the fields of academia, politics, economics and more, the Forum aims to offer diverse perspectives and insights on the role of China in the 21st century. To learn more about the organization, please visit https://camchina.org/.

Bincheng (Stéphane) Mao is currently a double major in Philosophy and History at New York University and is also the founder of East Coast Coalition for Tolerance and Non-Discrimination (ECC). The ECC is an effective international non-profit organization dedicated to serving marginalized groups. It is committed to promoting social inclusion and raising the public’s and legislatures’ awareness of these issues through socially concerned initiatives. ECC’s network includes 3,200 members and volunteers from 15 universities in North America.

In this new episode, we invited Damir Kadirov to share with us his working and living experience in the most prosperous city of China – Shanghai. The podcast covers a lot of topics, including going to grad school in Shanghai, finding a job after graduation, getting a work visa, his first impression of the city, and his impressions on Shanghainese people.

In this new episode, we invited Yuheng (Peter) Deng to talk about his paintings, which are featured in the UCBRC’s first online art exhibition, Home is…?. Yuheng is a second-year international student at Haverford College and a spiritual artist with unique cultural understandings. In both his artworks and our discussion in this podcast, Yuheng illustrates his transforming perspectives on “home” during this pandemic. We can also discover that the idea of home may have already been transformed into memories and imaginations that are self-constructed. However, through the process of searching for our roots, the unreliableness of our imagination and memories often distort and destabilize the reality.

In this new episode, we invited Zhaoxi to share with us her opinion on cross-cultural friendship and ways to overcome cultural barriers, her thoughts about the difference between the West and China, and her gains from organizing international projects like IMUSE and HEYTA.

In today’s episode, we feature Zhiwen Yang. He is a graduate from Beihang University, a university sanctioned by the U.S. government and put onto the BIS “Entity List.” In his original plan, Yang would be enrolling in Washington University in St. Louis this fall to start his Ph.D. program in biomedical engineering. However, the pandemic and the increasing tension between the U.S. and China have added difficulty to executing his plan.

In this episode, we talk with Andrew Cao about his experiences growing up in France, China, and Canada, studying journalism in a U.S. college, his understanding of different cultures, and his future goal of attending law school.

In this episode, we talk with Tianyu (Tian) Fang about his time working as a freelance journalist in bringing diverse perspectives, his interest in politics, and his traveling experience during the pandemic.

In this new episode of Connecting the Dots, Ekaterina Kaligaeva (Kate) shared with us her international experiences studying Chinese and winning the Chinese Bridge Competition in Belarus. She also talked about her college life in China as an international student, her major in journalism, and her opinion about the Chinese working environment and culture. Kate also shared advice for those who want to pursue a TV career or study in China.

In this episode, we talk with Michael Chen about his experience with the coronavirus pandemic, his identity as a Chinese-Italian going to a U.S. college, his interest in different cultures, and his understanding of U.S.-China relations and international politics.