This past summer I travelled to Kunming, China to participate in a Mandarin language immersion program, which marked my first time travelling outside North America.
Months after returning to the States, I still struggle to answer the question, “How was China?” After studying for two months in China and being back in the United States for over a semester, I find myself reflecting more on the country I grew up in rather than the foreign land I just visited.
As expected, I was entirely cut off from social media and Western news. As a chronic “news addict”, I kept up with what was happening in the world by reading state-controlled English-language media, which has a tenuous relationship with facts. Biases aside, encountering Chinese views of the world enriched my understanding of American society.
Read the full article in the 2020 Issue of the Journal of Sino-American Affairs.
Nicholas J. Romanow 