My Chinese dream takes root

When I first came to China in 2018, I arrived as a foreign student on a scholarship, with a suitcase and many questions. I had come to pursue a master's degree, but I did not know that the journey would gradually become much larger than education.

Eight years later, as China and Bangladesh prepare to mark the 51st anniversary of their diplomatic relations on Oct 4, I find myself thinking not only about the relationship between two countries, but also about the place one country has come to occupy in my own life. China has become where I've learned, worked, traveled, made lifelong friendships and discovered new dimensions of myself.

Before I came to China, my understanding of the country was largely shaped by books, news reports and what I had heard from others. China is portrayed internationally in many ways, often through political competition, economic statistics and geopolitical tensions. But I wondered what lay beyond that picture.

I wanted to see China with my own eyes.

Over the years, I've traveled through 27 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China. I've seen highly developed urban centers as well as remote rural areas. China, as I came to know it, was not only skyscrapers, high-speed railways and technology companies. It was also elderly farmers working in the fields and rural communities where culture, tourism, agriculture, technology and entrepreneurship were creating new sources of livelihood.

Those experiences taught me that getting to know a country requires more than observing it from afar. It requires going to places, listening to people, learning about its history and seeing change on the ground.

As a Bangladeshi who has spent many important years of my life in China, I occupy a particular position in telling this story. I understand many of the questions foreigners ask about the country because I once asked many of the same questions myself.

My academic journey gave me another way of looking at China. I came here to study international business, later earned a PhD in international trade, and focused much of my research on Bangladesh-China economic relations.

Research taught me to approach China not only emotionally, but also analytically. I began asking how its economic transformation unfolded, how development policies affected ordinary people, and how aspects of China's development path might offer insights for developing countries such as Bangladesh.

Over time, these two ways of knowing China — through lived experience and through research — began to come together. They have shaped not only how I see China, but also what I call my Chinese Dream. I hope to belong, contribute and tell: to continue building my life here, to put my knowledge to use through education, research and international exchange, and to share what I've learned about China as honestly and responsibly as I can.

This dream has also led me to think seriously about joining the Communist Party of China. I know that, under the Party's current membership rules, I'm not eligible to apply as a foreign national. Even so, having developed such an aspiration says something about how profoundly my years in China have shaped me. What attracts me is not simply status or title, but the responsibility I associate with serving people, contributing to society and promoting closer ties between China and Bangladesh.

For me, telling China's story does not mean presenting a perfect country. Every society has challenges, contradictions and areas that require improvement. A meaningful story should reflect complexity — achievements and difficulties, aspirations and realities.

My purpose is not to tell others what they should think about China. It is to help them see what I've seen, understand what I've learned and perhaps ask new questions for themselves.

I hope to remain in China permanently, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten where I came from. Bangladesh will always be my motherland. My roots, childhood memories and cultural identity are connected to Bangladesh. China, meanwhile, has become a second home where I've spent some of the most formative years of my life.

My journey in China is far from over. There are more places to visit, more people to meet, more research to conduct and more stories to tell.

When I look back at the young Bangladeshi student who arrived in China in 2018, I realize how much has changed. I came here intending to earn a degree. I did not expect to develop such a deep connection with the country.

What began as a master's program gradually became something much larger: a life shaped by two countries and a desire to help their people understand one another better.

This is my Chinese Dream: to belong without forgetting my roots, to contribute through the work I can do, and to tell China's story not from a distant perspective, but from the experience of someone who has lived it.

I do not know exactly where this journey will take me.

But I know where I want to walk.

I want to continue walking with China.

Written by Mohammad Saiyedul Islam, PhD, a Bangladeshi scholar, senior lecturer and researcher at the School of Overseas Education (School of Foreign Languages), Sanming University in Fujian province, and a research fellow at the Sanming University-Shanghai International Studies University Joint Research Center for Hungarian Studies. He is also a senior research fellow at the Daffodil International University Belt and Road Research Centre in Bangladesh.