Russian freshman strikes chord of cultural harmony

At the opening ceremony of East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) in Shanghai last month, Russian freshman Kseniia Kozhukhova, majoring in business administration, took the stage as the international student representative.

Known by her Chinese name Lin Mohan, Kozhukhova impressed the audience with her fluent Mandarin and a poetic metaphor inspired by her love of the guqin, a traditional seven-stringed zither with a history of more than 3,000 years in China.

"A single string makes only a monotonous note. It is only when each string vibrates with its own timbre and echoes the others that a complete melody is born," Kozhukhova said, explaining her interpretation of the Chinese concept of hehe gongsheng, or harmonious coexistence.

"We are different, yet together we create something beautiful," she added.

Kozhukhova is among more than 1,100 international students from over 100 countries currently enrolled at ECUST. Degree-seeking students, pursuing bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs, account for 67 percent of the cohort.

A key research university in China with strengths across a range of fields, ECUST offers disciplines spanning science, engineering, materials, computer science, economics, management, arts and law. Its international students come from six continents.

Kozhukhova's journey to Shanghai began with a fascination for Chinese characters. She was struck by the Chinese character he, meaning "harmony", and saw in its components for "grain" and "mouth" an image of people sharing both food and their voices.

To her, learning Chinese was never just about mastering a language, but about understanding a worldview.

Her passion deepened as she read Chinese literary classics and practiced calligraphy. She chose her Chinese name, Mohan. "Mo" means ink, while "han", suggesting cultivation and cultural depth, reflects her wish to be nurtured by Chinese culture.

But for Kozhukhova, an interest in another culture is only the starting point. Genuine understanding, she said, requires looking beyond one's own familiar frame of reference.

"Liking a culture and truly understanding it are two different things," she said. "We shouldn't arrive in a new country and simply judge everything by the standards we brought with us. Instead, we should first try to understand why its history and society have taken the shape they have today."

Finding her voice

Her exploration of Chinese culture eventually led her to the guqin. While studying at university in Moscow, she encountered the ancient Chinese instrument while researching an academic paper. What began as a subject of study gradually developed into a deeper appreciation of the instrument and the cultural traditions surrounding it.

"The guqin is not simply an instrument," she said. "It is bound up with traditional Chinese aesthetics, philosophy and the culture of the literati."

Learning to play the guqin taught her that the silence between notes can be as expressive as the music itself — an idea she also applies to education.

"Education is not about molding everyone into the same shape," she said. "It is about giving each person space to find their own voice."

Choosing ECUST, she said, was a "long-term investment". She believes there is growing demand for young people who can speak Chinese and have management skills.

"In the end, coming to ECUST wasn't only about the university itself. It was about how this place made me feel," she said.

After graduation, Kozhukhova plans to return to Russia and run a Chinese language school. Her ambitions echo the musical metaphor she used in her speech at ECUST.

"If every Chinese teacher is a string, I want to be the tuner," she said. "I want to help more strings vibrate together and play China's stories to the world."

"I hope that in Russia — and in many other countries too — people can see a richer, more diverse China."

zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn