International students take China's college entrance exam to realize "China Dream"

As Chinese youths are preparing for the country's annual college entrance examination slated to begin on Tuesday, some 500 foreign students already took the exam to Shanghai's Fudan University over the weekend.

The university set up exam sites in Shanghai, Seoul and Singapore.

It is the first time a Chinese university held such exam to admit overseas students, said Wu Huizhen, director of Fudan's foreign students office.

In the past, foreign students only had to provide their grades of the Chinese proficiency test and their high school reports if they wanted to apply for undergraduate studies in China. Entrance exams for international students were tried in certain schools or departments of prestigious Beijing University, Qinghua University and Fudan University only in the last few years.

The students who took the exam to Fudan came from more than 20 countries including the Republic of Korea (ROK), Japan and Malaysia.

The two-day exam included tests of Chinese, English, maths and the comprehensive capabilities in liberal arts or natural sciences.

Twenty-one-year-old Soon Eugene, from Seoul, was quite confident on her performance in the exam. She said she was longing for being admitted by the journalism department of Fudan University "because Shanghai is the most glamorous city in my mind."

Soon had two years' study experience in Qingdao, a port city in Shandong Province, east China.

However, her country fellow Jung Jamy seemed a bit unsure about her "Chinese university dream," saying she felt "senseless" after taking the test of Chinese Saturday morning.

According to the general outline of Fudan's Chinese exam,

foreign students must have a good understanding of the thoughts of ancient Chinese philosophers like Confucius and Mencius, ancient Chinese poems, famous Chinese literary works and even some noted modern writers.

Wu, the director in charge of foreign students in Fudan University, said the uniform entrance exam for international students is designed to guarantee that the foreign students are able catch up with the university's teaching once they are enrolled.

On the other hand, the university "can find no other choice than set a high threshold because so many foreign students want to study here," she said.

Along with the growing "China craze" and "Chinese craze" worldwide, more and more young people in foreign countries choose to further their studies in China.

Every year, more than 10,000 students take the Chinese proficiency test, also called Chinese TOFEL, in some 100 exam sites scattered in more than 30 countries and regions around the world.

The statistics from the Ministry of Education show there were less than 8,000 foreign students studying in China 20 years ago, and the figure became 86,000 last year. Many students come to learn Chinese arts, history, medicine and agriculture.

Most of them come from other Asian countries that have close economic, trade and cultural relations with China, said Chen Yinghui, an official with the ministry's international department.

She said the big flow of international students is mainly attributable to China's rapid economic growth. "It also reflects China's position in the fields of culture and history in Asia."

Chinese professors welcome the arrival of foreign students, saying the surge in the number of international students will help speed up the internationalization of China's universities.

Prof. Wang Shenghong, president of Fudan University which sees a 10-percent annual increase of foreign students, said, "Foreign students will also help Chinese students learn how people of different cultural backgrounds can co-exist and understand each other."

Source: Xinhua