ALUMNI PROFILE
Aston Alumni Magazine — 2019
ALUMNI PROFILE
Xenia Zhang:
“ASTON IS MY LUCKY PLACE” By Richard McComb
T
here was a look of disbelief on the faces of family and friends when Xenia Zhang (BSc Communications Engineering, 2008) proudly announced her plan to pursue a career as a globe-trotting gourmet. Armed with her degree from Aston University, a suitcase full of ambition, and boundless reserves of energy, Shanghai-based Zhang dreamed of turning her love of fabulous food and drink into a successful business. Talk of such a project may have been greeted with an encouraging smile in the UK, but for a young woman in mainland China this was uncharted territory. What was she thinking?
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“Ten years ago, there was no such job as ‘Gourmet and Traveller’ in China. Lots of people didn’t understand me,” recalls Zhang. “As my family had spent so much money to send me abroad to study, most people probably thought it would be better for me to stay in a safe zone, get a job in an international company, and get married. “But for me, as Xenia, I think you only live once. If I didn’t do the things I really loved, I might have a lifetime of regrets.”
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