A nice student story for the Holidays: reborn in a new culture

Victor Brouwers participated in the Netherlands Asia Honours Summer School (NAHSS) and tells us about his experiences:

“As if you are smothered in a sandstorm made of humid air; that was my first impression of Chengdu after leaving the plane. After having lived towards this moment for months, it was finally there. Together with my highly varied group of students I stepped into an adventure like never before. I would complete a consulting project for PricewaterhouseCoopers and study in China for about 5 weeks.

We were at the beginning of our five weeks in Chengdu, where we would grow closer with the other project groups, follow ‘Chinese Language’ and ‘Modern Society and Politics’ at Sichuan University, get overwhelmed by the spicy local food and bring our project to a successful end, only to then go to Shanghai for the closing week with NAHSS’ers from the other cities”.

Chengdu: a spicy bite of culture

Our weeks in Chengdu were full with activities: in general we followed three of four days of lectures, where we got acquainted with the differences of the Chinese educational system in comparison to what we were used to. The unforgettable monologues of Zhou Yi, professor for ‘Modern Society and Politics’ who could at random burst out in songs, were interchanged with rather competitive ‘Chinese Language’ lessons where the students of the class were required to battle against each other, resulting in a challenge to be completed by the losing party. Besides the lessons, our weeks were filled with company visits. These visits were quite varied; we visited organizations such as AkzoNobel, Unilever and the Chinese liquor-giant Wu Liang Ye. This last company offered us a tour around their facility which hosted 50.000 employees, followed by a completely arranged weekend filled with highlights in Chengdu and its surroundings, such as the Leshan Giant Buddha: an intimidating statue hatched from a cliff and 71 meters tall.

Chengdu also offered us especially characteristic dishes; the ‘Sichuan Pepper’ will be remembered by many, albeit with varying degrees of appreciation. The typical Hotpot and round tables where food was shared with the whole table did not resonate with everyone. However, every Chengdu’er has great memories of trying new foods in great company.

Uninterrupted highlights

Even now that I have had the time to reflect on the NAHSS program, I find it hard to determine where to start when telling about my experiences. Naturally, I gained some deeper insights in China as a result of the journey and of course it is extraordinarily special to experience this overwhelming trip with a group of  students from different backgrounds. But there is also the bizarre contrast within China itself, between cities such as Chengdu and Shanghai, which should be mentioned. And I will not forget about the remarkable trip to the Siguniang mountain, where we saw the sun rising at a mountain top of 5000 meter. Shaking from the cold, exhausted from the trip, but nonetheless a unique moment in time, to be frozen in my memory forever. And even then, after mentioning all of this, there is so much more to say about what the NAHSS actually entails.

So if you would like to experience something truly unique, if you have some affinity with China and the ambition to participate in something amazing during the summer holidays: don’t hesitate and apply for the NAHSS 2019!

The deadline to apply for the NAHSS 2019 is January 8. For more information please visit the NAHSS website or contact the TU Delft ambassador (Philip): https://www.nahss.nl/nl/

Philip van den Heuvel – Ambassador NAHSS
P.C.vandenHeuvel@student.tudelft.nl