Hopkins-Nanjing Center Blog

Matthew Chitwood, HNC Certificate ’10, Johns Hopkins SAIS MA ’11, is currently on a two-year fellowship with the Institute of Current World Affairs to research infrastructure development and its impact on people, land, the economy, and governance in Yunnan Province.    Tell us about being a fellow with the Institute of Current World Affairs (ICWA) in Bangdong, Yunnan. It’s almost too good to be true. ICWA asks you what you would do if you could pursue any personal and professional development opportunity for two years. My answer was to understand rural China. I’m familiar with China’s massive urban centers after living in them for over a decade. But roughly 40% of China’s population still lives in rural areas - a big number when you’re talking about the world’s most populous country. And it’s a critical demographic to understand if you want to grasp where China is coming from and where it’s going. So I’m living in a small village - I mean "350 people small" - in rural Yun...

Taylor Jones graduated from University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2014 and received a Certificate in Chinese and American Studies in 2017 from the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. Since 2017, she has worked as a marketing consultant and senior operations manager for Walland Technology Company Ltd. in Nanjing, China. Tell us about your current role. I am a senior operations manager at Walland, a Chinese e-commerce company that specializes in women’s fashion products. Walland has multiple brands with products that range from luxury wigs to wedding dresses and invitations, and their brands cater to mostly the European and American markets. I primarily work with the RPGShow luxury hair brand. In my role, in addition to strategic planning, I organize and prepare logistics for our offline events in Europe and the United States. These events include mini offline locations, where we partner with local hairstylists to display our products, and larger pop-up shops in places like London, New York, a...

Student blogger Cady Deck, Certificate ’19, interviews the Hopkins-Nanjing Center student committee (banwei) representatives about their experiences. Every semester, students elect four representatives to the student committee, known as banwei (班委). There are two Chinese students, one male and one female, and two international students, also one male and one female. The banwei acts as the intermediary between the student body and the administration, advocating on behalf of the students. It deals with issues within the community as well as planning campus events such as the annual Halloween party, seasonal holiday parties, weekly coffee discussions, barbecues, etc. I talked to a few banwei representatives from last semester and this semester to learn more about their responsibilities. The Fall banwei representatives (left) and the Spring banwei representatives (right) Why did you decide to run for banwei? Shelby Tuseth, banwei Fall ’18 : I wanted to learn how the Hopkins-Nanjing Ce...