International Exchange programme – China

“The worst part of my trip to ZUMC and China was coming home”

So said one of the students who took the chance to embark on a month long exchange visit to China at the end of May 2014.

Six students from Liverpool Screen School, spent a month at our partner university , Zhejiang University of Media and Communication – ZUMC is situated about an hour and a half from Shanghai , in the city of Hang Zhou . As the name suggests it specialises in media and Communications, and has purpose built facilities in which students worked and learnt alongside Chinese undergraduates. (Shirley Lewis, LJMU Journalism)

Shani Vizma, a Media Production graduate was part of this group – this is what she had to say about her experience –

Travelling is a luxury not everyone experiences. Truly travelling, to somewhere that has a completely different culture and lifestyle. It’s a cliche to say it broadens the mind, but it really does. As I arrived in China, my western mind was active and I switched on my phone to update my Facebook status to a generic ‘I’ve Landed!’. Only to find that my screen was white.

The country is beautiful, architecture dating back hundreds of years, surrounded by myths and legends. Starving and exhausted from over a day of travelling I looked for food, fermented eggs anyone?

We were swarmed by the universities students, a bustling environment of questions and anticipation. It’s not every day you meet someone who says “I’ve never spoken to an English person before”. Bursting for the toilet I ran in to the cubicles to be greeted by a hole in the ground. In a rural public town it was an alien experience, I know what it feels like to be a celebrity now. Cameras inches from our faces, shouting and grabbing our arms, my blonde and blue eyed friend apparently brought luck. There was a girl who wore the same clothes for an entire week, her reasons being that her family were punished financially for having a second child. As media students, we couldn’t wait to go and experience the education over there. It was brilliant. The technology and equipment provided for students was fantastic and students were passionate about their studies.

All of these are merely small aspects of our China experience, I wouldn’t have changed any of it. I learnt so much and loved the experience. I made real friends out there, friends who had never left China, I couldn’t imagine. The opportunity was once in a lifetime and a paragraph doesn’t even skim the surface.