I was invited by the Association of Chinese Students & Scholars in the Netherlands (ACSSNL) that hold their yearly festival at the Delft University of Technology to give a lecture about how to survive (as a Chinese student) in a multicultural environment. This also gave me the opportunity to observe, talk to and mingle with the local Chinese community for an entire day - a wonderful experience!

But I did not come alone from TU/e, as many Chinese students also came along, including those taking the Master’s course ‘Intercultural Communication, Cooperation & Integration’ I give for the Department of Electrical Engineering. Many of them also were active participants: for example, one student played the Chinese Lute (Pipa) beautifully and another delivered a brilliant Chen style Taiji performance. The TU/e was definitely visible in Delft, too.  

This great experience felt for me as students returning a favor. Let me explain. During my course on intercultural communication, I led students through endless discoveries of what intercultural communication, cooperation and integration really means for international students studying at the TU/e. In turn, they made it possible for me that day to look into their world, their soul and their culture with the many speeches, lectures, acts and performances they all carried out on stage. This Lunar New Year event did not feel as the beginning of a new era for me (sorry, I live by another calendar that has no Monkey), but rather as the conclusion of a fantastic exchange across cultures that the students and I initiated with this course and that we ended together at this grand festival! A truly win-win situation. Xiexie!