Close Encounters--Mainland Students in Taiwan

At present all of the mainland exchange students in Taiwan come from those universities ranked among the top of each province's institutions of tertiary education. These schools are jammed with talented people, and have signed sister-school agreements with renowned universities worldwide, so the students don't lack for opportunities to study in Europe or America. Why do they still choose Taiwan?

"Curiosity!" say many mainland students. In their minds Taiwan has always been a rather mysterious place. It is more advanced and Westernized, and its politics appear "chaotic." It is familiar yet strange, an "alternative China." Another factor is that quotas are limited, making it a rare opportunity indeed to come to Taiwan, so students spare no effort to win a place here.

"When my mom found out that we could apply to study in Taiwan, she was more excited than I was, and wanted me to apply as soon as I could." Deng Shanshan, a student from the Department of Applied English at the University of Electronic Science and Technology (UEST) in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, now studying at I-Shou University in Kaohsiung, says that in the past it was impossible to imagine even visiting Taiwan, much less studying here. The night before leaving home, she kept thinking that the next day she would be living in Taiwan, and was so excited that she couldn't sleep!

The first thing that hits home with mainland students in Taiwan is the warmth and hospitality of Taiwanese.

"My school has a 'buddy system.' Your buddy meets you at the airport, gets you settled into the dorm, and helps out right up until classes start-they are very kind and enthusiastic in helping us get used to the environment. Even when their official work is done, they still look after us and make sure everything is going OK." Zheng Ruirong, an exchange student at Kaohsiung's National Sun Yat-sen University who comes from Guangzhou's Sun Yat-sen University, adds that classmates stay in frequent contact through MSN, and often invite each other out for dinner, so that everyone has become good friends. He was even invited to stay at his buddy's family home in Tainan.

For mainland Chinese students, Taiwan has an inexpressible sense of mystery about it. Many have passed up opportunities to study in top schools in the US and Europe in order to come here. At right in the photo: Li Zhongyi and Zheng Ruirong, exchange students at National Sun Yat-sen University.

"In Taiwan, when we go out we don't have to worry about our money being stolen, or being shortchanged by the owner if we buy something at a shop," says Deng Qiang, a student of computer science and information engineering at Chengdu's UEST. Studying in a very rural area in Taiwan, he adds that he is not afraid at all of hitching a ride with a local passerby. He says that the friendly interaction between folks in Taiwan has redefined his notion of "human nature."

Deng Shanshan avers that this "interpersonal trust" is connected to the fact that the essential elements of 5000 years of Chinese culture have been carried forward best in Taiwan. "Children in Taiwan study the Chinese classics from the time they are small. On top of that, the economy is well-developed and people have stable lives and good jobs, with a 'strong sense of well-being,' so that the society is quite civilized."

"The biggest benefit of our coming here is that the people on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait get to know each other better," says Deng Qiang. For example, before he came to Taiwan his parents were worried about his personal safety-"What if you get beaten up by the Democratic Progressive Party?" It was only after coming to Taiwan that he realized that such things just didn't happen. Correspondingly, many Taiwanese don't understand the mainland at all. Mainland students are often asked "bizarre" questions like "Do you have to recite from Thoughts of Chairman Mao before you eat?" or "Do you guys use ancient Chinese grammar when you speak?" When Deng Shanshan was asked by a teacher, "Are there electric lights in your home? Do you have a television?" she didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Interestingly, whereas many foreign students consider Taiwan professors to be not open-minded enough and wedded to a one-directional mode of teaching, in the eyes of mainland students they take on a very different appearance.

"Our professors back home are very severe, and control everything during class," says Xie Xin, a mass communications major at Xiamen University. You can often see students and faculty hanging out and talking together in Taiwan, like friends. Moreover, with 200 or 300 students per class in the mainland, teachers there are unlikely to get to know any of their students over the course of a semester. But in Taiwan teachers not only know their students, there is a lot of interaction. A teacher might walk over to someone's desk and ask, "Just now so-and-so said this, what do you think?" This kind of thing is really touching for mainland students. Moreover, some teachers not only teach technical aspects of their courses in class, they will "chat" about overall developments and trends, really widening students' perspective and opening their minds to new insights.

It is generally agreed that mainland students are avid and ambitious learners, so they may be able to stimulate Taiwanese students to be more studious as well. However-perhaps because the number of mainland students is still small-there has as yet been no noticeable positive stimulus.

Ge Qing, a student from the Russian department at Xiamen University, observes: "It might be that Taiwanese students think that Taiwan is Taiwan, the mainland is the mainland, and the two should not be judged by the same standards."

"The students here don't have a very pro-active attitude toward academic work," suggests Li Zhongyi, a life sciences major at Guangzhou's Sun Yat-sen University, adding that many Taiwan students even "despise" mainland "bookworms" who spend all their time in the library. She says that Taiwanese students participate in a lot of extracurricular activities and a lot of them have part-time jobs, and just cram the last couple of days before tests. Mainland students, on the other hand, are not only in "study mode" every night from Monday to Friday, they are sure to be found in the library for the whole week before exams. "Here the libraries are virtually empty. In the mainland the library opens at 8:30 in the morning, and you have to start lining up at 8:00!"

"Taiwanese students could be better at English and specialized knowledge, but they are very creative, with very strong ability to do practical things." Deng Shanshan, who is attending Kaohsiung's I-Shou University, says as one example that when she saw Taiwanese classmates designing Christmas posters or a haunted house for Halloween, she was really impressed. Not long ago she went to the home of a Taiwanese classmate, who, despite having only ordinary grades, has a lot of talents, not only taking care of mainland students but also heading up the school cheerleading squad and the youth group of the Fengshan Presbyterian Church, while also writing and directing her own musicals. Deng watched as her classmate expertly cooked noodles, cleared the tables and mopped the floor at her mother's noodle restaurant, and realized that she is missing out on this model of well-rounded learning from life.

Would mainland students come to Taiwan to study for degrees if this were to be permitted by the ROC government?

"For sure!" say many mainland students, because "we like the atmosphere in Taiwan, it is free and low-pressure." However, according to a survey of higher education in Asia conducted in 2009 by Readers Digest, the US is the top preference for mainland students to study abroad. In Asia, their top choices are Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan, with only 5% opting for Taiwan.

The enthusiasm of mainland students for coming to Taiwan is especially dampened by the many restrictions imposed here: they are not eligible for government scholarships; their tuition levels cannot be less than at private universities (even if they matriculate at cheaper state-run schools); they cannot take part-time jobs; and in future, under proposed revisions to the law, even if they are allowed to get degrees in Taiwan they will not be allowed to stay here to work. "Other countries provide full scholarships, and we can't ignore financial realities," says Xie Xin.

"Now exchange students from the mainland are coming over, but because Taiwan students are worried about the fact that credits for mainland universities are not recognized in Taiwan, very few of them are going over there." Several mainland students opined that students on the two sides each have their own strengths and weaknesses, and can learn from each other, which would be beneficial for both. They suggest that the Taiwan government change the rule on recognizing mainland credits so that cross-strait exchanges can take another giant step forward.