NEWS & EVENTS

The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies (TBC), founded by Fr. Ron Anton SJ in 1998, has formally opened its first satellite site inside Mainland China. The Kunming Liya Center, or 昆明理雅学苑, is located in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province. Yunnan Province is one of China’s southernmost provinces, bordering Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Kunming is often referred to as the ‘City of Eternal Spring’ for its fair climate and lush biodiversity.

The Beijing Center turns 25 in 2023.

Professor Howard Hao, martial arts master and Tai Chi teacher, began with TBC in 2002 and has seen over twenty years of students come and go since then. Before being a professor, he was mentor, tutor, and roommate to American students. He’s well-known in the martial arts education world for his novel pedagogical approach, work towards bringing Wushu to the Olympics, and a client list that includes TBC students to celebrities and everyone in between.

In celebration of TBC’s milestone, Professor Hao – who is known by his students as just Howard – shared his story and his fondest memories with TBC.

Sina Weibo, often dubbed “China’s Twitter”, is one of China’s largest and most popular social media platforms. Just like Bilibili, which we covered in a different blog post, it was launched in 2009 by Sina Corporation – hence the name Sina Weibo, although it is more popularly known as just ‘Weibo.’ Despite the nickname, Weibo is more than just a replica of Twitter or a microblog platform. It’s a social media tool that combines rich multimedia information and resource sharing, varied idea exchange, and online conversation.

Bilibili (哔哩哔哩) is China’s largest pop culture and entertainment community for young people. Founded in 2009, it used to be a platform for sharing social content like videos of virtual idol Hatsune Miku and animated series, but now it’s an online pop culture community that spans anime, cartoons, games, music, painting, fashion, life, technology, to name a few genres.