Chinese students write new 'Journey to the West'

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-07 15:21

VELLORE, India -- About 1,200 years ago, a Chinese Buddhist monk named Xuan Zang came to India to study Buddhism, which was made into a classic fiction "Journey to the West".

Today more than 1,200 Chinese students are following the steps of Xuan Zang to India to study IT, English, finance and commerce, among others, in a dozen Indian universities.

In this Tamil Nadu city located mid-way between two major Indian cities, Bangalore and Chennai, 414 Chinese students have become the largest foreign community ever in the newly established college of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT).

On Monday, Chinese Ambassador to India Zhang Yan brought a spiritual back-up to these students -- a bronze statue of Confucius -- to inaugurate a Chinese Language Study Center in VIT, which is also the first of its kind in Indian universities.

"I am so happy to see such a large group of Chinese students in VIT and to realize that the number is still growing," Zhang told the students when he met them on Sunday. "Relations between China and India have entered a fast track in recent years, and you can become the mini-ambassadors of China to build friendship with Indian students."

Addressing a vast auditorium with hundreds of Indian and Chinese students on Monday, Zhang said that education and the youth are the best way to build bilateral relations, as both represent the future.

Touring the VIT, it is not difficult to find that the campus is very similar to Chinese campus in both style and composition. That is one of the reasons Chinese students can quickly get accustomed to the environment, which is very distinct from their home country in other ways.

Shao Subo, the first Chinese Ph.D. student in the Business School of VIT, said that Indian colleges are good places to learn, because it is not possible to pass the tests without mastering good English writing skill and good spoken English skills. The Indian schools also ask students to present their independent ideas of the theories instead of merely memorizing the formulas and texts.

A native of Hunan province who came to India in 2006, Shao said Chinese students can learn a lot from Indian students, as the latter are among the brightest in the world and the most hardworking ones as well. He said that Chinese students must overcome cultural shocks and learn to work very hard and very diligently in order to survive in India.

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