Humans of HUST: Eileen

Eileen is a quiet and serious freshman student who is in my narrative writing class. She is quite a skilled writer. We meet in front of the school library because she has a library volunteering shift to go to after our interview. The sky is gray, because it is Wuhan. We both ponder the sky; both of us come from blue-sky lands.

Eileen is from Shandong province, from a city called Weihai. She describes it in an idyllic way; “It is very beautiful and is near the sea and there are many beautiful beaches and there are many travelers every year, and it is fit for just spending your own time. The life pace there is very slow. It is very quiet and beautiful and clean. There is always blue sky because it is near the sea, the climate is very enjoyable.” She pauses to look at the sky. “The climate is hard in Wuhan.”

I get to see another side of Eileen today, which is the whole point of this project anyway. Eileen has a great English name. I ask her why she chose it and she tells me that she found it on the internet and loved the pronunciation, especially the letter ‘E.’ I am surprised to find that I’m the first person to ask her if she knows the song, “Come on Eileen?” She doesn’t, yet seems delighted to look it up later. Eileen’s Chinese name is ‘Zhang Yuan Lu.’ ‘Yuan’ was given to her by her grandfather and means the new century; she was born in the year 2000. ‘Lu’ means ‘Jade,’ which is just a beautiful stone.

As a freshman, Eileen has experienced a lot of challenges adapting to life at HUST. She mentions the military training; every freshman spends their first 3 weeks in college marching and training outside in the sun all day. As she describes it, “ From the beginning of my life in university, it’s very hard for me, especially the military training. It’s hot. The sunshine is so annoying and so tiring. All day we are outside, from 7am until 9pm; only 2 hours for sleeping and eating and 1 hour for dinner.” After 21 grueling days, the students are off to classes. Eileen reminds me that I was the very first university teacher that she ever had; her first class of the week. She thinks back to how much she struggled to come up with a simple English word when we talked after class; it’s amazing how much her English and confidence has improved since then. Another challenge she has experienced is a common one: getting off her cell phone. Many students are addicted to their phones and spend too much time shopping on Taobao or playing games. Eileen notes that she has problems controlling herself but she wants to work on the issue.

Eileen has already made some close friends at HUST. She describes several to me, explaining how comfortable she feels around each. There’s one girl especially who she is close with: “I also have a friend in another major, Ms. Wang, she is very interesting person, I’m comfortable talking to her. Our habits are very similar and we both like traveling and we both like eating and we both like studying together. But it’s sad that she has a boyfriend now, oh, I was abandoned. Her boyfriend is not very happy for my existence. He thinks that she is more likely to stand together with me than him. So, I tried my best to disturb her less.”

Eileen is a double major in International Business and English, similar to Scarlett and Sherry, who I interviewed earlier. She shares the same struggles of a teeming full schedule and not enough sleep. I ask Eileen why she chose her majors. She tells me that she was initially interested in news and journalism, but because of her score on the Gaokao, she went into international business instead. She was told by older friends that university wasn’t actually relaxing, but Eileen didn’t believe them. Now, she reflects: “I thought it would be ok before I really came to school and had the classes, but after being here, I found that I don’t have my own time. I have 4 or 5 classes in one day...I think it’s just that you don’t have any time to play, and you even don’t have enough time to review.” In my eyes, Eileen is one of the most serious and dedicated students in my class, but she tells me that she feels inferior to most of her classmates: “I admire the students in my class who get higher marks; I think there’s a need to admire that; they keep a balance between the studying and the learning, and they can use their time more effectively. I always want to talk to them and learn about their methods. Maybe I am a little inferior. I don’t have some hobbies like playing the piano or dancing or singing; after I’ve come to the university, I’ve found that many people around me have their own hobbies, like painting, dancing, and so on. And, I don’t have their talent.”

Unsurprisingly, Eileen is actually a very impressive student and interesting person, despite her feelings of being less. She studied incredibly hard in high school and was always in the top 3 ranked students. Due to her hard work she got into HUST, which is a top-ranked school. She explains that the level or ranking for your undergraduate college is actually more important than where you go for graduate studies, since as a senior high school student, you are competing with all the other seniors in China. The competition dwindles with graduate studies and it’s no longer a huge deal if your school is highly ranked or not. I ask Eileen what she thinks about HUST and she reflects; “Before I came to HUST, I looked at some picture of HUST, and I liked the trees very much, and I think it’s beautiful. When I came here, I’m a little disappointed because the buildings are so old. Shabby. I’m a little disappointed but I think the teachers, students here are very very good, excellent. I think the total environment is very good for me.”

Eileen has very specific plans for her future: she wants to work at Huawei in an overseas position. She’s especially interested in this because she could have the opportunity to travel, which she loves to do. She thinks that before she does this, she will try to study economics in Shanghai for graduate school. She notes that her dream is a big one and that she owes it to her father, who loves Huawei. There are two things that really light up Eileen’s eyes: traveling, and her family. We find a quiet place to sit by a lotus pond near the library and she takes out her phone to show me pictures from her recent trip to Nanjing with friends. Her family is what we spend the majority of our time talking about.

A lot of things makes Eileen happy; she admits that she actually is happy quite easily, for a variety of reasons. When she IS sad, she takes care of this easily by calling her parents. As she explains, “It’s easy because whenever I’m not happy, I like to call my parents and just to communicate with them about my sadness, and after the communication, I feel better.” Eileen may be unique because she tells me that most of her friends here are surprised that she communicates with her parents so often. Eileen describes her relationship with her parents; “I am very close with my parents. Thanks to the education of my mom . She educated me very well I think. I appreciate her very much. I have a very happy family. Whenever I think of my parents, I feel happy, I’m the luckiest one in the world.” At this point, Eileen starts to tear up, but continues to tell me about her parents, and especially her mother: “When I was very young, my mother always educated me that you should study hard, but that I don’t care about the results, I just want you to do your best. When you think you have done your best, that’s okay, no matter the prize you have won. No matter how high or low grades you make, I don’t care. I just want you to do your best.”

Eileen describes her mom as incredibly clever, despite not having gone past junior high. “I think that my mother has more wisdom than I do. She knows about life wisdom.” Eileen describes through her tears how her mother used to walk the 1km with her to school every morning, and pick her up every afternoon after school to walk her back home. They spent the time talking about Eileen’s day at school. She also mentions her father; “My dad is a little bit busy, so when I was young, I don’t appreciate him the same as my mom, but then I found that my father is also very very good, I think why I’m so lucky for having them to be my parents? When it comes to talking about my family, I always cry like a baby.”

When I ask Eileen what she loves about herself, she says, “I think I’m a little not confident about myself. When I was very young, my grandpa said that between all the siblings, he thinks that I’m not as clever. He thinks that my intelligence is not as high as my brother’s or other sister’s. He said that everyone’s future doesn’t depend only on my intelligence. He thinks that my mother does a good job in educating me. He really appreciates her. He always said that I have very, very, good parents. I have the best grades of all my siblings. My parents said that you are not the most clever but you are lucky because you have your parents. Many teachers in my school said to me that you have a wonderful mother. My grandpa says that if I didn't’ have my mom, I would not be like how I am today. She’s very important for me.”

Despite her humble nature, Eileen really is an amazing and well-rounded student, who not only pays attention in my class (!) but also spends time volunteering around campus, traveling with friends, and participating in extracurriculars such as the debate team. Eileen also really enjoys listening to music and keep track of the international news.

Here is a recent picture of Eileen on an outing with her debate team:

Eileen’s favorite things about Chinese culture is the beautiful ink paintings done by Chinese artists. She explains; “I think it is very meaningful; it looks like simple but when you look at it closely for a long time, you can experience that it is very very meaningful. I think it is excellent.” About China, she wants Americans to know that, “It’s a good place to travel and also the economy of China is growing and it is a better place to work. I love China very much and I’m proud of being Chinese because my father loves China very much too; he always thinks that all Chinese need to make a contribution to the growth of China. I want to tell your American friends that if you have time, please go to China how it is like today, not just from your imagination. Because I think just like me, if I want to learn about America, I’ll search it on the internet, and not all the information on the internet is correct, and we should experience it by ourselves. More and more american people should go to China to see what is China like today, not just imagine.”

She ends our interview by talking about the vast differences between the various parts of China, especially when looking at the different dialects and the different snacks. Eileen laughs as she tells me how spicy the snacks are in Wuhan and how she often doesn’t even know how to eat them correctly. In regards to the dialects, she notes that, “ In Southern China, the dialect is so different from the normal language used in all of China. We can’t understand the dialects. Northern China doesn’t have separate dialects, so you can understand each other. Im Southern China, wow, what are you saying? As a person from Northern China, I can only understand the Putonghua (standard Mandarin). At school, we all speak Putonghua, but when I go outside HUST, to the bus or supermarket, and there are many older people and they couldn’t speak the standard, so they just use their dialects. So, every time, I need to thank for a long time, what are you saying? I can’t understand you. Speaking English to me is better than you speak dialect.”

Thanks Eileen!