by Enno Zhang, CEMS student, TSEM/LSE
A LEGACY OF EDUCATION
M
18
y life has been filled with paradoxes. My Chinese and German cultures come from opposite ends of a spectrum. I am a believer in western education that fosters more critical thinking and less exam-orientated studying. However, my life path has also been greatly influenced by the Chinese “university dream”, as well as other traditional values, such as carrying on the legacy of my family business.
As a result, although I’m ethnically Chinese, I was born in Germany. Nine years later, we were expatriated as German citizens back to China, for my father’s career. I attended Shanghai American School, before returning to Germany to study the same major as my father, Mechanical Engineering, at the Technical University of Munich. I am currently pursuing the CEMS MiM at Tsinghua, Beijing, with an exchange semester at LSE.
My father is from the first generation of Chinese people whose lives were impacted by the opening up of communist China and Chairman Deng’s policy, which restored the national college entrance exam, Gaokao. He was only 14 years old when this qualified him to enter Hunan University, after which he was sent by the government to pursue a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hannover.
Studying at Tsinghua has made me feel at home in many ways, but it has also made me feel like an outsider. I am quite familiar with China, having spent nine years of my childhood in Shanghai. However, my family was living an expat life. At the Shanghai American School, all of my peers were foreigners and most teachers and students came from the US. Thus, although I lived here for almost ten years before attending
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Tsinghua, there was still a lot I was unfamiliar with. The CEMS programme helped fill that gap because it brought me together with students from all over the world. However, now, close to graduation, the contrast between my eastern values and those of my European peers is shown by my plan to respect the more traditional side of my nature. Rather than start my own company, work as a consultant, or apply to work with a Fortune 500, I will be using my CEMS education to continue growing the network of schools that my grandparents founded two decades ago. A Family Legacy The Chinese education system is structured with a high priority placed on achieving good results on national college entrance exams, so it tends to focus on testtaking and memorisation skills. This is
PHOTOS, FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: BY HERIBERT POHL - MONOPTEROS, ENGLISCHER GARTEN, MUNICH | BY QUALI T - SOUTH PARK, MUNICH | BY TREY RATCLIFF BOAT IN HUNAN PROVINCE | BY TREY RATCLIFF - THE SILENT TEMPLE OF ZHANGJIAJIE, HUNAN PROVINCE | BY LAIWAN NG - ZHANGJIAJIE, HUNAN PROVINCE