My Shanghainese Summer 2023

QI Weide 齐伟德 (Russia)

Hello everyone! My name is Dmitrii V. Tsvetkov, my Chinese name is Qi Weide (齐伟德), I came from Saint-Petersburg, Russia. I`m a Chinese language teacher in Saint-Petersburg State University of Culture. Same time, I`m a scholar, researching Chinese traditional culture, history of China and cultural relations between China and foreign countries. I love China and Chinese people a lot, and feel very happy every time when I arrive to China.

It is a fourth time when I arrived to China, and my first time in Shanghai. First three times I studied in Beijing, and my last time was in 2017. When I arrived to Shanghai, there were aspects, which already were familiar for me: language, culture, cuisine, people`s daily life, lively streets etc. Same time, there are lot of things, which were absolutely new for me. First of all, there are new university and new people. East Chinese Normal University is one of most famous and largest universities in China, it has large and modern campus, and a lot of faculties and institutes. Despite I know so few about this university now, I`m sure, this university has a very strong scientific and educational basement. It is obviously, that ECNU has a very developed Chinese language teaching system, and there are a lot of proficient teachers of this language. I think, it is a great honor and lucky to come to ECNU for study.

During four weeks I spend in Shanghai, we had an advanced Chinese class and rich cultural activities: we visited a lot of interesting places in Shanghai, such as Suzhou creek, Anfu Road, Shanghai Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine etc. We also met with Chinese families from Shanghai. We talked, walked and had a lunch together, it was an amazing and unique experience!

There are also a lot of places I visited by myself: the Bund, Shanghai History Museum, Jing’an Temple, Jade Buddha Temple, Longhua Temple, Yuyuan Garden etc.

During my short stay in Shanghai, I met a lot of good, lovely and interesting people from different countries. It was wonderful experience to study with them, talk with them and make friends with them. I hope, our communication will continue after we finish this program and return to our countries.

I`m very happy that I could join this program and visit ECNU. Staying in this university in Shanghai let me learn more about China and Chinese people, and improve my language skills a lot. My new experience inspired me to continue to research Chinese history and culture and to share my new knowledge with my students and give them more motivation to study Chinese language.

I want to thank organizers of this program for this amazing and wonderful possibility, and I hope I will return to Shanghai soon.