Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues

In the weeks leading up to the U.S.-China Student Dialogue trip, sharing that I was going to China for spring break was always met with absolute shock. "Why?" was the inevitable follow-up. Why would a 20-year-old, very blond girl from the Midwest be going to China? Beneath the question was a kind of barely masked disbelief that seemed to stem from the way that China was discussed in classrooms. As a business and global affairs major, China has been at the center of nearly every conversation, whether political or economic in nature, almost always framed as a strategic competitor to the United States. For many Georgetown students, when thinking about China, it is frameworks, rather than lived experiences, that first come to mind.

Yet from the moment we landed in Shanghai, not a single theory came to mind. Instead, I was completely entranced by the city. With my nose pressed to the bus window, I tried to absorb every sight as we made our way to the hotel. Within minutes of dropping off our suitcases, our cohort was already out on the streets hunting for food. It was then, sitting with steaming broth floating up to my face, surrounded by the rapid chatter of Mandarin, that I realized just how incredible it was to finally be in the place that had been the subject of years of coursework and all our virtual discussions.

The first day in Shanghai brought glorious free time: meandering through streets lined with vendors, trying scallion pancakes, visiting a Daoist temple, and following the Mandarin speakers in our group around like ducklings. The site visits in the following days provided texture to the conversations that had been held before the trip. A conversation at Google offered a glimpse into the polished responses often given in public settings, especially when contrasted with the company’s shrinking reach after the ban on its applications. At the Shanghai Institute of International Studies, leaders of the premier think tank spoke candidly about the challenge of operating in China, and how their researchers had faced increased pushback and interrogation when visiting Washington.

Yet, I found that the richest conversations occurred outside the conference rooms. A chat with an entry-level analyst while waiting for the bathroom at Standard Chartered Bank gave me a chance to hear about the immense pressure on young Chinese professionals to achieve. Over noodles in the Peking University dining hall, our groupmates told us about how all-consuming the road to university had been. And walking from the National Museum to Tiananmen Square allowed us to learn from Professor Kristen Looney about past democratic protests and how they had quietly shaped the political landscape we were observing.

I returned to campus not only with a cohort of new friends but also with a fundamentally changed understanding of the country. China leaped from the pages of geopolitical abstraction or business school case studies and was illuminated in the context of its rich culture and history, as well as the incredible kindness of everyone we met. This was truly an invaluable experience that I will continue to learn from and apply both in the classroom and outside of it. I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to have taken part in this trip and for the people who made it so meaningful.

Solene DeGaynor (SFS/B'27) is a student at Georgetown University studying business and global affairs.