Talking Chinese, Writing Articles, and Drinking Tea: What Chinese Club Students Did this Year

© HSE University

The HSE Chinese Student Club at the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs School of Asian Studies has completed its 2021/22 season. Its participants and organisers talked to the HSE News Service about how they discuss China’s socio-economic, political, and cultural development as part of the club’s events.

The mission of the HSE Chinese Student Club is to provide an environment for informal communication between lovers of the Chinese language and Chinese studies, as well as to popularise knowledge about China. Chinese Club hosts speaking meetings, screenings of films in Chinese with discussions, and meetings with scholars who study China. The Club’s participants prepare interviews with experts on China and publish educational materials on a variety of topics related to China’s traditional culture, history, arts, literature, economics, politics, and Russia-China relations.

Alexandra Sizova, Associate Professor, Deputy Head, School of Asian Studies, Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs

‘The club cooperates with the Chinese Department of the School of Asian Studies. We organise joint events. This year, our Chinese colleagues, School of Asian Studies lecturers Liu Jingpeng and Zhu Fan, participated in the Club’s activities, which are supervised by Maria Efimenko, who is also a lecturer at the School.’

Maria Efimenko, Lecturer at the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs School of Asian Studies

‘The Club had ten speaking meetings this academic year. The students have met researchers, a calligrapher, a Guo Hua (traditional Chinese painting) artist, and other professionals. The Club’s members include about twenty students who organise meetings and communicate to speakers and guests.’

Vitaly Senotrusov, second-year student of the School of Asian Studies

‘What appeals to me about the Club is the team of likeminded people. Moscow, as well as Russia at large, has only a few places where one can network with people who study China, who love what they do and are willing to promote it.

I am thrilled with the range of the Club’s activities: from films and conversations, to discussing Chinese traditions and holidays, to telling each other about renowned China researchers

Over the year, we have participated in and organised a lot of events, both larger one-time ones and smaller regular meetings. These skills will be useful to us when we start working as professionals.

As a host of the speaking club, I was surprised to see that as we organised online meetings during the year, they attracted not only students of different Moscow universities, but people from various Russian cities, aged 30 to 40, who stopped learning the language a long time ago, but are willing to practice it. One of our regular online guests was Sergey, a plumber-engineer from Novosibirsk. Such a varied audience only piques our interest to continue the speaking club’s activity.

In the next academic year, we are going to continue exchanging experiences with Chinese clubs at other universities, and we will probably organise some joint events.’

Elizaveta Trubnikova, third-year student of the School of Asian Studies

‘I love how the club offers immersion in Chinese culture and informal communications. It is great to learn something new and read articles by students.

It’s always a pleasure to talk, to drink some Chinese tea, or watch a Chinese film

The cinema club is my favourite. We have watched films with other students and Chinese participants. The discussions that followed were thrilling—they gave me a different perspective on what I had heard and watched.’

Anastasia Kamalyagina, third-year student of the School of Asian Studies

‘Chinese club means new experiences, new friends, and, of course, new knowledge about Chinese culture. Each of us can choose a topic to their taste and dive into it, be it arts, literature, economics, green energy, or cinema.'

Talking in Chinese with people who love it as much as you do is always a powerful experience

Rinat Abzalilov, third-year student of the School of Asian Studies

‘The main advantage of Chinese Club is complete freedom. We are free to choose any China-related topic and work on it: write articles, organise meetings and events. The HSE Chinese Club has a lot of participants, and each chooses what they are interested in, but when we organise events, we join our efforts to make them as good as possible. I like the club’s participants: they are all interesting and smart people, and it is a pleasure to talk to them and just be in their company.

We are always happy to see new participants! Come next year—it will be interesting.’

To contact the HSE Chinese Student Club, please visit the club's page.

To contact the Chinese Department of the School of Asian Studies, please see the department's page.