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I left FS to complement my knowledge, experience a different take on business and economics. 15,000 km as the crow (plane) flies, the Shanghai Jiaotong University´s Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) was exactly right for that.
And what better place to go to than the ever-restless, super-lazy, glittering-glistening, grimy-grizly, logical, bewildering and thus incredibly Chinese metropolis of Shanghai? – The place where the skyhigh towers are brimming with financial expertise and capitalism physically prowls the streets, the place of the SHIBOR, the place where the seemingly boundless soaring Shanghai Composite Index heralds the roar of the Chinese dragon rising … and where just a few meters away, there around the corner, a flock of tiny Chinese street-shops are clustered, clutched together. Precisely as they had been for the last three decades. #1
But, I am getting ahead of myself. Here now cometh the tale with details and in the correct order:
Before I even set foot on Chinese soil the well-oiled FS-SAIF cooperation started and provided invaluable help with all the administrative nitty-gritty so that I arrived comfortably and without noteworthy incidents. – And according to my wishes, I arrived in a shared room in the dorm for Asians on campus. I wanted to experience the cultural difference again full throttle and that was exactly what I got: I shared the dorm and daily life with Koreans, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese. Consequently, Chinese (Mandarin) – and not English! – was the only common language. #2
The classes were taught in English, 70-90% of the people were Chinese and after some icebreaking these classmates turned out to be very approachable, helpful and curious persons. They did not look like the managers and successful entrepreneurs they were, but every single one had her and his personal story of responsibilities and achievements. If you got to know them a little better over a shared meal, you quickly realized what a tight-knit, inclusive and amazing group they were. One day someone brought presents for everyone, because his baby daughter was born and we celebrated together with the professor in class. It was almost like a family and I was a part of that. A memory to treasure and oh so Chinese.
The classes were ´teaching with Chinese characteristics´: The teachers were highly motivated, tried very hard to achieve interaction, were surprisingly outspoken on topics I would have considered sensitive and were glad to be approached by interested students. The often female professors delivered very recent and highly relevant content. At first, the workload (difficulty & amount) seemed not like much, but rapidly amounted to an intense, fast-paced learning experience that really got knowledge and experience into your head. Weeks were gone in a blink. I was also amazed by the ruthlessness and technical savviness with which teaching personnel crusaded against the evils of turning up late, freeriding and plagiarism. The degree the effectiveness was beyond my wildest dreams and awe-inspiring. This was all the more impressive since this MBA degree program values in at about 60,000+ Euros, excluding living expenses comparable to Frankfurt.
I got my food from the small Chinese restaurants in the streets outside campus and made a point of eating the things that I didn´t know. I stopped at nothing, not for the rather common chicken- or pig feet and not even for a raw, still-moving squid (a Korean dish). Venturing out in the world should be about evolving yourself. And that means leaving comfort zones, ignoring fears, conventions and prejudices and immerse yourself in the alien culture. Trust yourself – it is worth it.
All in all, I had an incredible four months in China that went by in a flash and left me with nothing but good memories, friends afar and an improved version of myself. I conclude with some quotes that might be helpful for everyone new to China: “Don´t let irrational fears cloud your reality. ” and “The sky is the sky and people are people, wherever you go”.
All the best! – Eugen Hölzl, 予根韩, MIB class of 2015. Find me on XING, LinkedIn and WeChat!
#1 I got back about one month before said dragon catched a cold in the upper atmosphere, developed a mean cough and started tumbling down towards earth again.
#2 There is of course also a dorm where most of the Westeners live and the common language is English, but I went there only for the coffee.
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