编者按：本文为2014级中国法硕士毕业生代表Jurian van der Pas在bat365在线平台2015年度毕业生欢送典礼上的致辞。
Distinguished faculty, distinghuished guests, families, friends, and fellow graduates, good morning. My name is Jurian van der Pas, and I represent one of the many voices of the LLM Class of 2015. With many I mean around 15. Graduation is a time of reflection and it is for his reason that I would like to take this opportunity to tell you something about my time as a student at Beida studying Chinese and Chinese law over the past few years.
Like many laowai, when I first came to Beijing as an exchange student three years ago, I did not speak any Chinese. Consequently, the first few months were quite difficult to say the least. I needed to learn Chinese, find suitable accommodation, find new friends, start my life in China. Of course, plans always change. Originally, I was going to stay in China for six months, but I soon found out that six months is not enough to learn fluent Chinese. Thus, I decided to continue my Chinese adventure and study Chinese Law at Peking University law school.
When I told my old law school friends in Amsterdam I was going to study law in China they asked me: what is Chinese law about? And why go to China to study law? I often reply the first question with another question: what is Dutch law about? My question is usually left unanswered or answered with some vague and general statement about the rule of law and its place in a democratic society. Actually, I couldn’t tell you either what Dutch law is about and after two years of working and studying in China, neither can I tell you what Chinese law is about. What I can tell them about Chinese law, however, is how I have seen how quickly China’s legal system is developing and the progress Chinese law has made in a short time. Even during my three short years in China I have seen many legal reforms and adjustments in regulations pass by. The pinnacle of all the Chinese legal reforms I have seen over the past few years I must say, was the extensive new regulation on the topic of my thesis that the Chinese government decided to promulgate 2 weeks before my deadline.
When answering my friends second question, why study law in China, I usually have a lot more to tell to my friends. For example, I still remember my first day at Beida. It was a warm August day in 2012, the sky was painted orange by sand and smog, as I walked around weiminghu looking for the registration building. When you walk around weiminghu for the first time, I am sure you will instantly see the charm of studying in China. Even when seeing weiminghu on, as I know now, one of its worsed days with an orange smoggy background, I could see its charm. In addition, next to the increased career opportunities that come with studying in China, or at least that is what I have been telling myself and my friends, I see China as the ideal place to learn more about yourself and learn new ways of thinking.
However, it is at the beginning of this journey that things often go wrong. As many foreigners can attest, China can be a real adventure. I remember arriving at the airport one time, and how I had to quarrel with the driver about the amount of luggage I took with me and the extra fee I had to pay for the amount of extra weight. Then there is going to the campus canteen and stand in line for 15 minutes to find out that the only food you like is already gone, or go to the office to get a transcript of your grades, it is all part of the Chinese adventure. To use a Chinese word that I have found increasingly usefull during my time in China: China can sometimes be mafan.
However, this adventure is often misunderstood. Offcourse nobody likes mafan. However, when you look through the mafan, and with a little bit of extra patience, you will soon see the many beautiful aspects of China and Chinese culture. For example, when I went out to dinner with friends, and China, although all three times before my friend has picked up the bill, I still have to fight every effort to secure the opportunity to pay, so in China, I learned how to secretly pay. Another example is a few days ago when I asked a colleague to help me, immediately there were six co-workers surrounding me telling me how I could best solve this problem. This is also China, China has a kind of lovely kindness and reserved enthusiasm. These past three years, China stole my heart.
Thus, on this important day, I and the other foreign students want to say: Thank you China, thank you Beijing, thank Peking University. I am sure we will meet again, to continue our adventures in this beautiful ancient and young country.
Like many laowai, when I first came to Beijing as an exchange student three years ago, I did not speak any Chinese. Consequently, the first few months were quite difficult to say the least. I needed to learn Chinese, find suitable accommodation, find new friends, start my life in China. Of course, plans always change. Originally, I was going to stay in China for six months, but I soon found out that six months is not enough to learn fluent Chinese. Thus, I decided to continue my Chinese adventure and study Chinese Law at Peking University law school.
When I told my old law school friends in Amsterdam I was going to study law in China they asked me: what is Chinese law about? And why go to China to study law? I often reply the first question with another question: what is Dutch law about? My question is usually left unanswered or answered with some vague and general statement about the rule of law and its place in a democratic society. Actually, I couldn’t tell you either what Dutch law is about and after two years of working and studying in China, neither can I tell you what Chinese law is about. What I can tell them about Chinese law, however, is how I have seen how quickly China’s legal system is developing and the progress Chinese law has made in a short time. Even during my three short years in China I have seen many legal reforms and adjustments in regulations pass by. The pinnacle of all the Chinese legal reforms I have seen over the past few years I must say, was the extensive new regulation on the topic of my thesis that the Chinese government decided to promulgate 2 weeks before my deadline.
When answering my friends second question, why study law in China, I usually have a lot more to tell to my friends. For example, I still remember my first day at Beida. It was a warm August day in 2012, the sky was painted orange by sand and smog, as I walked around weiminghu looking for the registration building. When you walk around weiminghu for the first time, I am sure you will instantly see the charm of studying in China. Even when seeing weiminghu on, as I know now, one of its worsed days with an orange smoggy background, I could see its charm. In addition, next to the increased career opportunities that come with studying in China, or at least that is what I have been telling myself and my friends, I see China as the ideal place to learn more about yourself and learn new ways of thinking.
However, it is at the beginning of this journey that things often go wrong. As many foreigners can attest, China can be a real adventure. I remember arriving at the airport one time, and how I had to quarrel with the driver about the amount of luggage I took with me and the extra fee I had to pay for the amount of extra weight. Then there is going to the campus canteen and stand in line for 15 minutes to find out that the only food you like is already gone, or go to the office to get a transcript of your grades, it is all part of the Chinese adventure. To use a Chinese word that I have found increasingly usefull during my time in China: China can sometimes be mafan.
However, this adventure is often misunderstood. Offcourse nobody likes mafan. However, when you look through the mafan, and with a little bit of extra patience, you will soon see the many beautiful aspects of China and Chinese culture. For example, when I went out to dinner with friends, and China, although all three times before my friend has picked up the bill, I still have to fight every effort to secure the opportunity to pay, so in China, I learned how to secretly pay. Another example is a few days ago when I asked a colleague to help me, immediately there were six co-workers surrounding me telling me how I could best solve this problem. This is also China, China has a kind of lovely kindness and reserved enthusiasm. These past three years, China stole my heart.
Thus, on this important day, I and the other foreign students want to say: Thank you China, thank you Beijing, thank Peking University. I am sure we will meet again, to continue our adventures in this beautiful ancient and young country.
编辑/朱煜琪