Thankfully, everyone here is very nice and like anywhere else, some students are reserved and may not approach you first, but others will approach you first. You can choose to be the ones to initiate or not but either way finding something you guys can mutually do, like playing sports, is the first step. From there, friendships blossom.
As the semester is coming to an end, we caught up with Pasheen, a Fall 2023 student from the “Study Abroad” program, who shared her challenges and adventures as a beginner in Chinese language and culture.
In December 2023, TBC (The Beijing Center) welcomed an old friend—Fr. Antonio Spadaro SJ, an Italian scholar, writer, and a key advisor to Pope Francis. He previously visited TBC in 2019, delivering an academic lecture on “Cultural Fusion in the World.” This time, TBC was honored to host Father Spadaro once again.
One of the most interesting books TBC has in historical collection the original Latin edition of Historia Tartaro-Sinica nova, written by the Belgian Jesuit Francois de Rougemont, and is his eyewitness narrative of the Ming-Qing Transition. That includes the Manchu campaigns against Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) and the foreign missionary activities in China in the mid-17th century.
On December 8th, Anderson Pedroso, President of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) and esteemed member of the International Association of Jesuit Universities (IAJU), embarked on his first visit to China. On the 29th of the same month, President Pedroso had a private audience with Pope Francis at the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican, where the Pope commended PUC-Rio for its contributions to human and social development through its robust educational and research initiatives.
One of the many perks of living in China as an American is the price of day-to-day living. At my home university, Seattle University, I may have to spend $10-$15 for a single meal, I can expect to pay $1 to $2.50 per meal at one of UIBE’s four canteens. Most frequently, I eat at the International Plaza canteen which is conveniently situated in the basement of the dorm building where all TBC students live. Another one I frequent is the halal canteen which is not too far away from my dorm building and has two floors. Occasionally I will go to the first canteen which has four floors and the second canteen. All canteens at UIBE have a variety of foods to eat and choose from so that I never get sick of eating the same thing every day.
To mark the 25th anniversary of the only Jesuit institution in mainland China, The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies (TBC) gathered friends and alumni on the evening of 28 November to cherish the sweet memories of the past and look forward to the bright future.
On December 1st, The Beijing Center (TBC) participated in the annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific region’s Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) International Liaison Officers, hosted by Sophia University in Japan. Representatives from various AJCU schools, such as the University of Hong Kong, Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan, and Sogang University in South Korea, convened to address and forge solutions to issues identified during the AJCU Leadership Meeting earlier in August in the Philippines.
Earlier in TBC’s blog series, we introduced the missionary-produced atlases of China, shedding light on their geographical contributions. If you’re intrigued, feel free to explore it here. However, the missionaries influence went beyond mapping terrain that they also played a crucial role in documenting significant historical events. Join us as we uncover their accounts, revealing a narrative that goes beyond maps and extends into the rich tapestry of China’s history.
Before arriving in China, many of my close Chinese friends and neighbors would tell me tips and tricks on navigating the markets as if they were treacherous roads. At that time, I didn’t take it too seriously. I already had some sense of what night markets are like from previous experiences in Asian countries, so I was confident I knew how it worked. I had no idea how vital those tips would be on the Silk Road Excursion this semester.