Hopkins-Nanjing Center Blog

It can sometimes be challenging to find the time to explore and get out into the city of Nanjing while busy with school activities and studying for classes. That’s why I took advantage of the last week of our long Chinese New Year holiday to dedicate some time exploring new parts of the city. I’d heard great things about the Jiangsu Art Museum from both teachers and classmates so I hopped on the subway with a friend and we made our way over.  The Jiangsu Art Museum is located in the heart of the city, only three subway stops away from the Hopkins-Nanjing Center and right next the enormous and also well worth-visiting Nanjing Library. The Nanjing Library is closer in size to a shopping mall and its impressive modern architecture makes it impossible to miss. Arriving at the Jiangsu Art Museum, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that entrance is free to everyone. The museum is a vast, multi-story building but only a select number of galleries are open at a particular time...

I was given the wonderful opportunity to have a conversation with Hopkins-Nanjing Center alumnus and award winning author, translator, and Professor of modern Chinese history at the University of London, Julia Lovell. Professor Lovell was a certificate student at HNC from 1997-98 and has since published numerous acclaimed historical writings, including The Opium War: Dreams, Drugs, and the Making of Modern China , The Great Wall: China Against the World , and The Politics of Cultural Capital: China’s Quest for the Nobel Prize in Literature . Prior to our interview, Professor Lovell had been traveling on academic leave to conduct research on Maoism in Nepal and India. Can you briefly introduce the research you’ve been doing on the propagation of Maoism outside of China? You described your recent work as tracking the “transnational history of Maoism”, what does that imply? Transnational history, as I see it, is not just tracking the global travels of certain ideas; it’s exploring how ...

Meet Brennan Leong, a 2nd year student in the Master of Arts in International Studies Program. Brennan is an International Economics concentrator who is currently writing a graduate thesis in Chinese on the empirical factors that influence the craft beer market in China. Partnering with the Kentucky company, Alltech, alongside a number of Chinese breweries, Brennan is assessing market entry for craft beers, both domestic and foreign. A double-major in Chinese and Neurobiology from the University of Wisconsin, Brennan has previously worked in the health care industry as a children's behavior therapist and was enrolled in medical school. Ethnically half-Chinese, a longing to improve his language abilities and a compulsion to grow closer to a culture he was disconnected with in his childhood inspired Brennan to move to Chongqing to teach English. On a whim, a friend brought up the possibility of attending the Hopkins-Nanjing Center to further his academic study while...

Current MAIS student and Laura Chen Memorial Fellow, Maguire Padley, thesis research on gender inequality in Chinese sports led her to start a women’s sports mentoring program at a local Nanjing elementary school. Read about her experience below.    When I first moved to China almost five years ago, I was looking for a way to get involved in sports and decided to take up soccer. To my surprise, it was impossible to find a women’s team to join. Consequently, I began to play for a men’s team. I was astonished to find that every time I stepped on the field, the men on the opposing team would be completely baffled, advising me that a woman should not be playing soccer. While this experience was bewildering to me at first, it soon became a regular part of my life in China. For example, when lifting weights at the gym I would routinely be told that this kind of activity wasn’t for women. This was so contrary to my impression of women’s sports in China. For year...

The HNC Application deadline is just one week away! All application materials must be submitted by 11:59pm EST on February 1. Click here to access your application. Last Virtual Info Session before the Application Deadline Have questions about your application, financial aid or what happens after you hit ‘submit’? Join us for the last virtual session before the application deadline. Admissions representatives will be going through each section of the application and sharing useful tips. The info session will be held on Wednesday, January 25 at 12:00-1:00pm EST . RSVP by clicking here or, at the scheduled time, click here and login as a guest. As you make the final touches on your application, check out past blog posts for application tip s . If you have additional questions about your application or would like to speak with an admissions representative, email nanjing@jhu.edu . 

中美中心的中国学生采访: 我情爱的室友，吴叶 为了让大家认识中外学生在中美中心生活相处的情况，我很早就想找机会访问我的室友，吴叶。虽然在大学时我也有室友，但是我觉得在中心的情况是非常不同。因为在中心，大多数的外国学生会跟一位中国学生同住在一个寝室里。我们每天都有机会讨论课业和生活琐事，也会一起面临外语作业的挑战。因此我们需要互相扶持。我的室友吴叶帮我更了解中国文化并帮助我处理一些生活上的小细节。因此，我和吴叶的关系比我和以前的室友更密切。有一位这样的室友让我每天在中心更愉快! Since coming to the HNC, I’ve been wanting to give people an idea of what it’s like to live here with a roommate who I happen to get along with remarkably well. Though I also lived with roommates during my undergrad years, the living situation here at the HNC has some notable differences.  Most international students at the HNC are paired with a Chinese roommate, so two students from different cultural backgrounds share the same dorm room and everyday living space. This also gives us the opportunity to practice speaking on a regular basis in our target language, and to help each other with class assignments and editing final papers.  My roommate, Wu Ye, has given me a better understanding of the Chinese language, Chinese culture, and...

I walked across the basketball court toward the crowd of HNC students standing on the sideline.  It was Friday night and we were at the last game of Nanjing University’s basketball season. As we formed a student section, the HNC team warmed up for the basketball game that would soon begin. In Chinese universities, athletic seasons usually revolve around competitions between teams from each department. Earlier in the semester, they formed the annual中美中心 basketball team. Our team had made it to the final tournament matchup and was set to play the physics team. Players on our team included both international and Chinese students that hailed from as far as California, USA to Henan, China.  Every year, HNC’s sports interest groups are dependent on students that start them. Within this semester, multiple workout interest groups have emerged, adding on to student life on campus. HNC’s modest fitness center is equipped with essential athletic gear for activities such as weight...