The auditorium went bright. The audience applauded. The huge screen lit up. Two hosts, one Chinese and one American, came up to the stage. They stood up as they were introduced. The audience applauded again. My hands sweated. This show was going to be serious. I told myself, “Do not mess up, the Chancellor is watching.” My peers and I all felt stressed before the show started, even though we had been handed a file with pre-written bullet points and questions. We all thought it would be a small event. But instead we saw a stage being set up in the auditorium, with the screen playing videos about US-Sino relations and dozens of staff walking back and forth. We were asked to prepare in a small room and get to know other students from Fudan and Jiaotong. “You’ve got your bullet points,” said a member of staff smiling, “Don’t memorize them, try to answer them spontaneously.” On Sept. 20, four days after “From the University to the World: Sino-US Youth Dialogue Radio Show” took place at NYU Shanghai, multiple Chinese media sources quoted Brian Gible, Public Affairs Section Chief at US Consulate General. He stated that the radio show was “a good example of how important it is for Chinese and Americans to come together on a people-to-people level, not just government-to-government. You have to go and see for yourself to really understand what a country is like.” Global Times, one of the China’s most influential newspapers, published a related article titled “Encouraging Understanding by Conversing,” praising the success of the show. Xinhua Net wrote, “The heated discussion among students still did not end after the show.” But to what extent did the conversation truly bridge the gap between the two countries? One of the panelists, Lingyi recalled that “When I first agreed on participating in this Sino-US student conversation, I thought it was a good chance for us to open our hearts and speak freely about what we might or might not have hidden from each other, under the inevitable cultural barriers between Chinese and Americans/Internationals.” During the show, Lingyi and I tried to be representative when it came to questions about Chinese and American values. However, the hosts seemed to exhibit a bias. “By asking the type of question all the time through the Q&A session, which typically started with ‘I have heard about that American students often do…,’ I think the audience were actually categorizing different students who are from different cultural backgrounds. It represented the deep-rooted stereotypes that most Chinese hold not only towards foreigners, but also towards ourselves at the same time,” said Lingyi. In terms of the questions, rather than being related to a wide range of topics, the show disappointingly focused on what we think about “being judged without having a relationship,” “taking selfies” and how many celebrities we know from China and the US. This begged the question whether the show was a real chance to improve intercultural communication or whether it was just a formalized presentation. In reality we were unable to say anything sensitive or controversial, even though this might be more true to the real situations we are in. In addition the questions raised by the hosts and audience members were typically not as deep-rooted as some of the panelists had hoped. Unfortunately this may have served the opposite purpose to what was intended and actually deepened the stereotypes of the audience from both the US and China. Recognizing this Lingyi said “we all tried to apply a developing and progressive point of view to examine the existing problems within each other’s countries, rather than simply complaining and being regressive.” However, despite our efforts to highlight that generalization is a big issue, it seemed the audience wanted to know more about “Whether it is safe in the US” or “Why China is so populous,” rather than the experience both of the cultures. Professor Clay Shirky, a member of the audience, expressed his frustration by saying “I was disappointed in the stereotypes on display in the questions -- ‘the Chinese are like this and the Americans are like that, isn't that funny!’ -- but I was delighted that the panelists were all impatient with the assumptions behind the questions, and more interested in talking about what we can learn from each other. Frankly, the event would have been much more interesting if the students were actually allowed to talk with each other about their observations, rather than answering scripted questions.” Kadallah Burrowes, another panelist, told me “I was honored to be nominated and accepted to represent not only my school but my country on an international platform. I'm pretty liberal and outspoken in my views about the US and the role that my motherland plays in the world, and I was excited to represent a new generation of people willing to actually question the standards we as a nation hold ourselves to.” While Lizzy LeClaire, also a panelist, commented “As a first radio show, I thought the questions covered a wide range of basic topics, but I think it would be interesting to go more in depth on these topics in the future. For example, I think discussing the dynamics of being a foreigner attending a university in China or a Chinese student attending an American university would spark an interesting discussion.” But in general she thought it was a fun experience to get to know students from Fudan and Jiaotong. Lingyi and I discussed how it is our responsibility to bridge the gap between US and China, or any other cultures we encounter. Labeling a culture displays a one-sided and limited view, so it is regretful that the show “From the University to the World,” as a platform for college students from different perspectives, did not end up setting a good context for us to communicate. However, despite the controversy (or lack of controversy) the show did earn appreciation from both panelists and administrators. Kadallah reasoned that “While I wasn't 100% satisfied with how in depth things got, I think my fellow panelists were a bit too concerned with their own individual role in the process without taking into account the larger scheme of things into play. "From University to the World" is a relatively new show, and while it could have been managed slightly better, the kinks are totally acceptable considering the valiant cause that the program is trying to get across: entering Chinese youth into a dialogue with American youth. So maybe we didn't get a platform for making huge bold statements, but I'm fine with that because the panel made the statement: we need to be entering into conversation no matter how shaky it starts off…. I was, pleased to discuss how important the role of schools and organizations like NYU Shanghai are to the future of not only China and America's future, but the future of the world as a whole.” On September 25th, Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, started his week-long visit to the United States. Xi promised during the visit that China would support 50,000 students for study abroad programs in both countries in the coming 3 years. At the same time President Obama, announced to intent to expand the Chinese language learning plan in America. By 2020, there should be one million American students able to learn Chinese. So it is exciting to see cooperation between the two countries. With the establishment and development of institutions like NYU Shanghai and Duke Kunshan, we have seen “encouraging understanding by conversing” is in process. The latest report on the CRI radio show, is titled as ‘差异没有想象中大 求同存异才是大趋势’ (The difference is not as huge as we imagined, seeking common ground while reserving differences will instead be the trend.) Hopefully this is a sign of what is to come: improved relations between the US and China. This article was written by Ben Weilun Zhang. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Sunyi Wang