These past few weeks at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center have been super busy, both in terms of academic events and extracurricular activities. Below is an overview of what’s been going on recently.
Last semester, the banwei (student committee) organized a ping pong tournament. This semester they hosted a giant badminton tournament. The top four teams advanced to the next round. An intense battle determined first, second, and third place. I managed to win second place with my partner!
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| The field of competitors |
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| The final four teams |
A group of students arranged a Super Smash Bros. tournament in the student lounge, which was intense. In addition to the players, there were play-by-play announcers and a captive audience. I didn’t participate, but I was part of the captive audience.
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Left: Play-by-play commentators; Right: Smash Tournament
participants and spectators
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Dragon boat practice has begun. This year, the dragon boat festival falls before the end of the semester, so the Hopkins-Nanjing Center is entering not one, but two dragon boat teams! Every weekend we practice at Nanjing University’s 仙林 (Xianlin) campus, which is about an hour away by metro. We will compete against many other teams from around Nanjing on 百家湖 (Baijia Lake) on June 7.
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Dragon Boat Team One:
The 龙 (long, or dragon) Shots
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Dragon Boat Team Two：龙舟的船人
(Dragon Boaters)
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Academically, there have also been a lot of organized activities.
I recently participated in a criminology mini-course. City University of Hong Kong Professor Eric Chui came to the Hopkins-Nanjing Center to teach a three-day class. His class focused on three main questions: why people commit crimes, why criminals desist from crime, and why there are drastic differences in reported crime rates in Asian countries compared to those of Western societies. In addition to introducing us to criminology theories, he frequently paused to pose critical questions. We broke into smaller groups to discuss our opinions and present them to the class.
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| Criminology mini-course participants |
Students in the course on Islamic Fundamentalism took a field trip to a mosque in Nanjing. The course includes a general introduction to Islam and Islamic practice, and this field trip was an opportunity to learn more broadly about Islam and Muslims in China. We took a tour of the mosque and spoke with a scholar there.
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| Learning about the history of Muslims in China |
The Criminal Law class took a field trip to the江苏人民检察院司法鉴定中心 (Jiangsu People's Procuratorate Forensic Center), which is within walking distance from the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. We took a tour of the facilities and had a question and answer session with several of the officials. I’m not enrolled in the class, but the professor allowed me to tag along.
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| Chinese Criminal Law class at the Jiangsu People's Procuratorate Forensic Center |
One of the things I enjoy about being at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center is that there’s never a shortage of activities, both academic and extracurricular. Academically, I really enjoyed the criminology mini-course because it gave me insight into an interesting field that I have never studied in-depth. In terms of extracurriculars, I am super excited for the dragon boat festival. As one of the team captains, I can safely say that while it is definitely a lot of work, it is also a lot of fun to struggle through practices with everyone.
Written by Cady Deck, Certificate ’19
