China and Warhol’s 15 Minutes of Fame

By Phoebe Smith, Studying English at the University of Nottingham UK. As a staunchly cynical soul, Andy Warhol’s 1968 prediction that ‘In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.’, has always struck me as a sadly accurate interpretation of today’s media-fuelled, body-conscious lifestyle. Before my visit to China, I viewed the modern Kardashian-style …

A place where everything is held in the okay

By Abigail Aikins-Hawkson, MSci Business and Economy of Contemporary China. Chopsticks simply refuse to fit in my hand as well as a knife and fork does and in between wanting a hot cup of PG tips and needing it, I have come to realise, better yet understand, that comfort zones are comfortable for a reason. …

My China Experience

By Shivali Mistry, Second year MSci Hons Student in Accounting and Finance for Contemporary China, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China. As I embarked upon my journey to Asia last August, I felt highly unprepared. The idea of a year away from home still felt so surreal. Naively, I had dealt with the entire situation …

Xi’an and the Terracotta Army

By Felicity Woolf, Studying an MA in Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. We recently travelled to Xi’an, the old imperial capital, about 1000 kilometres northwest of Shanghai. It is the home of the Terracotta Army – or Bing Ma Yong (soldiers horse clay) in Chinese.  Our first impressions of the …

Life in China in comparison to other places that I have visited

By Harvinder Singh Sandhu, Studying Finance, Accounting and Management at the University of Nottingham UK. Ni Hao! Having completed my second year of study at the University of Nottingham, I felt that this was my last opportunity to travel abroad to study in a different country. When I heard about the opportunity of a two-week …

The Spring Festival

 By Klara Habartova, Second Year Student, BA Contemporary Chinese Studies, The University of Nottingham UK. For all Chinese, the Spring Festival (the New Year) is the most look forward to period of the whole year. It is a time when the word ‘together’ gets a new and much deeper meaning. A time when most of …

Ni hao Miao People!

By Klara Habartova, Second Year Student, BA Contemporary Chinese Studies, The University of Nottingham UK. 你们好 Miao people! As a little prize for successfully (hopefully) passing my exams, I decided to go for another short trip. There was a plac