the beijing center for chinese studies
Overview of
The Beijing Center
A WORD FROM SIMON KOO - EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF TBC
WELCOME TO THE BEIJING CENTER!
The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies (TBC) provides a unique environment for students from all over the world to begin their engagement with China. Our mission is to promote mutual understanding between China and other cultures. What makes us unique is our placement in a long and storied tradition of Jesuit education, one that teaches us that true cultural engagement starts first with friendship.
Matteo Ricci, S.J. (利玛窦) came to Beijing in 1601. Similar to TBC students today, he and his companions studied the Chinese language and culture and used that knowledge to engage in the academic life of the day. Like our students today, these people were great adventurers and showed great courage, humility, and respect for what they found here. Ricci found a particularly close friendship with Xu Guangqi (徐光启), who taught him the Chinese way of life. In turn, Ricci shared his knowledge of the West. We seek to follow in these footsteps as we provide students with the supportive environment to start their own adventures in China.
We achieve our mission by offering an outstanding immersive semester abroad program, short-term programs tailored for your group’s best initial engagement with China, and a research library with over 27,000 volumes in English used by scholars not only in China, but from around the world. We achieve our mission with TBC’s professional and dedicated staff.
So whether you are a newcomer or an old China hand, the experiences TBC provides will change and challenge the way you think about China and in turn, change your life.
ABOUT TBC
Established in 1998 by Ron Anton, S.J., The Beijing Center (TBC) is a not-for-profit center of higher education and research in mainland China committed to fostering mutual understanding between China and the rest of the world through cultural exchange, education, and research.
In its architecturally unique Beijing facility on campus of University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), TBC hosts students and scholars to study the Chinese language, culture, and a broad array of topics related to China. Since 2002, TBC has partnered locally with UIBE, a top-tier Chinese public research university. Throughout the years, over 2,000 students have spent a semester abroad at TBC and approximately 300–400 per year come to TBC with short-term faculty-led programs from all over the world.
TBC maintains a research library with over 27,000 volumes in English, including rare books and maps, and hosts conferences, guest lectures, and seminars. Considered to be the largest English language library about China on the mainland, TBC has hosted numerous scholars from China and worldwide to assist with their research.
TBC serves as a hub for the international Jesuit higher education network in mainland China. What makes us unique is our place in a long and storied tradition, starting with Matteo Ricci, of Jesuit learning engaging with Chinese culture. This tradition teaches us that true cultural engagement starts with friendship.