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AmoyMagic--Guide to Xiamen & Fujian
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CHINA STUDIES PROGRAM (CSP) 中国研究
Adapted from "Xiamen Univ. Strength of the South"
Related Links: CSP's Website Chinese Version "25% Return!" (1/4 of CSP students return!) "6% Joint Venture (6% marry!) "How Andy Met Annie" China Our Matchmaker!
Note 1: CSP is hosted by Overseas Education College of Xiamen Univ. (XMU), sponsored by Council for Christian Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C., and has students from colleges throughout the U.S. Note 2: XMU now has 2000 foreign students and 100 foreign teachers!...

“The Chinese will tell you that the future does not escape the past. Risk your present reality. Come explore China’s past and help shape her future.” CSP website

HOW CSP CAME TO XMU I have long urged urged foreigners to visit China to teach, study, do business, or even just to tour. And for years, I tried unsuccessfully to interest XMU in creating a crash program to orient foreign students in everything from Chinese history and culture to politics, language, and canine cuisine. So imagine my surprise when in March, 2000,the Overseas Education College (OEC) of XMU phoned to say “China Studies Program” (CSP) was considering XMU as a base.

I met with Dr. Richard Gathro, Executive Vice President for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), and Yili Lundelius, wife of CSP’s Director, Dr. Jay Lundelius. Over dinner I painted a portrait (unbiased, of course) of life in idyllic Xiamen. They must have liked what they saw and heard because CSP began classes at XMU that Fall and for six years now CSP has been XMU’s primary source of American students. Dr. Lundelius said he appreciates XMU’s professional management and support, but he’s even now signing a new contract with XMU, and he noted that many Chinese universities have fine campus and programs. In other words, there’s competition out there. So lets hope OEC keeps the quality up, because it would be a loss for both XMU and CSP if they relocated.
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25% Return (Up to 1/3 Now!) While CSP students all must apply through CCCU, not all come from Christian campuses. Students have hailed from Univ. of Virginia, James Madison, Cornell, etc. But more interesting than where students are from is where they go after CSP. Fully 25% return to China to study at the OEC, to teach, to work in community development projects, or to do business. One student returned to work for Coca-cola in Shanghai and then started his own business. About 10% of CSP students serve in the Peace Corp, from Mongolia, to Morocco, Uganda, Egypt, etc.

Dr. Jay said, “CSP helps students become much more aware of international issues, especially in China. It’s good for American students to get to know China and for Chinese to get to know Americans. Most American students are apprehensive when they come because they don’t know much about China, but they come, they make friends, and when they leave they are gung ho about China—and many come back.”
A.M. Guide to Xiamen and Fujian 《魅力厦门厦门指南》Return to Main Page Back to Top
6% Joint Venture! CSP has not only acted as matchmaker for Chinese and American cultures but also been a matchmaker for at least three couples who married each other after completing the program! A Romanian student from Iowa’s Dordt College joined CSP and married a student from Greenville College that he met in Xiamen. Another couple met in Xi’an, married, and are in the Peace Corp in Romania. The article at this chapter’s end is by Andy and Annie, who not only married after meeting at XMU but returned to work here. The way I figure it, about 6% of CSP students end up marrying each other. So if you want a spouse, sign up!

On Nov. 10, 2005, the U.S. Senate passed resolution 308 making 2006 the “Year of Study Abroad” to promote global education, globally literate citizenry, global peace, and global trade. Let’s hope the CSP stays at XMU so we can get our share of those American students—and so 6% of those may have hope of getting married! Here’s a tale of two CSP students who did tie the knot….
Back to top A.M. Guide to Xiamen and Fujian 《魅力厦门厦门指南》

How Andy met Annie at Xiada
by Andy and Annie Platt

I guess that technically Annie and I first met in LAX, but we only muttered a muffled “Hi” to each other, so for all practical purposes we actually met here in Xiamen as students in the CCCU’s China Studies Program, so that is what we tell most people.

And it would be a really cool story to tell you that it was love at first sight and that Xiamen served as a very exotic backdrop for a budding romance, destined to entwine the hearts of these two young students in eternal amour, but the truth is hardly so clean cut as that, though actually far more interesting.

I could start with our first genuine words to each other being my insulting her, but I will spare you the gory details. We began as model students, gleaning as much as we could comprehend from the wealth of information our professors gave us daily about this wondrous ancient nation so far from home. Much that we learned here was evidenced or came in handy later, like the hospitality of our friends in Xi’an and Xiamen, or the issues of face that so affected our later work environment.

The class load was so heavy that Annie and I had little to do with each other early on in the semester, but towards the end, when the load had lightened somewhat, she and I and another guy who remains my best friend to this day were spending a lot of quality conversational time together, mostly along the Bai Cheng beach area, or in the stairwells of Nanguang #5 where we lived.
Back to top A.M. Guide to Xiamen and Fujian 《魅力厦门厦门指南》
Then I did the unforgivable. Pressed with the fact that the end of the semester was looming and in a month or so we would genially go our separate ways, I decided that this incredibly good friendship warranted some degree of preservation and I sought this in the only binding way I could think of, a relationship. Thanksgiving day, 2002, after we had finished our lovely dinner of duck and cranberry sauce, I walked her back to campus in the midst of a downpour, while pouring my heart out to her. Her reaction was less than what I hoped for. To make it short (very short, because we discussed this for many hours over the course of at least two days), she refused me.

All’s well that end well, though. We left Xiamen a few weeks later, having mended what we could, and fortune would have it that our universities were within a few hours drive of each other. That spring I bought a cell phone and logged over 10,000 miles (and made a long drive to her home in Spokane, WA). By graduation we were a couple. By Christmas we were engaged, and we married on Feb. 29, 2004 (I tried to find the most unique date possible).

Because of our previous experiences at XMU, we knew China could be a wonderful place to work, so we moved to Xi’an to teach English, and when offered a position teaching history with our alma mater, so to speak (the CCCU and XMU), we couldn’t refuse. So here we are, back in Xiamen, where we frequently walk past the point where I was rejected, and I think in irony of whose hand now bears my ring.
Note: for more insights on how XMU students get girls, read the chapter “Changting Tales!”in "Xiamen University--Strength of the South." To read how Sue and I met, read China--Our Matchmaker!
Back to top A.M. Guide to Xiamen and Fujian 《魅力厦门厦门指南》