I am Sunwoo, a senior student majoring in Mathematical, Computational and Statistical Sciences. I was born in Korea, grew up in Hong Kong and came to Singapore for college. Due to my multi-cultural upbringing, I have had a lot of exposure to Chinese/Sinophone culture, which sparked my interest in pursuing this further by minoring in Chinese Studies. So far, I have been lucky to participate in a three-month language programme in Kunming, China in my second year, where I learned more about the language as well as managed to truly immerse in the culture by living with a local Chinese university student. I have also had wonderful opportunities to learn more about other aspects of Chinese-related works academically through a literature course that focuses on Sinophone films and books, as well as philosophy courses on Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism as well as Chinese Political Philosophy as a whole.

Outside of school, I was involved in the NUS Archery team, and I enjoy going on adventures to discover new culinary delights in Singapore!

I am a born and bred Singaporean whose mother hails from Beijing, which means that I can eat all the dumplings she makes without inheriting her skills of making them. Being a Singaporean, I am more than thankful for this forced bilingualism that has allowed me to begin reading and appreciating Classical Chinese. As a Chinese Studies Minor, I have learnt to treasure the wisdom and beauty Chinese classics have offered us.

Interestingly, one of my favourite classes was a class I took during my exchange semester with Professor Mark Metcalf where we took a deep-dive into Sunzi’s Art of War. It was an amazing class for we not only gleaned insights on how to win a war, but managed to laugh at a few bad translations together!

Growing up in Austria for the first 17 years of my life, I had no relation to Asia at all. I went to a local public school before heading to the United States for a high school year abroad. It was only after working a summer job in London that I found myself becoming increasingly curious to learn about Asia. The rising global interest on Chinese involvement abroad, coupled with the fact that I had no knowledge whatsoever about the continent at large, inspired me to study in Singapore and to delve into Chinese Studies.

At Yale-NUS, I took enriching classes about Chinese political philosophy and Chinese foreign policy, and also conducted self-directed research on Chinese loans to Ghana and Sri Lanka. My capstone project delved into the controversial topic of economic development, and it discussed the ethical implications of the borrowing constraints low-income countries are currently facing.

Hello, I am Althea from the Class of 2017. Unfortunately for me, back when I was at Yale-NUS, the Chinese Studies minor had yet to be introduced, but I think I would have been pretty close to qualifying! At the end of my first year, on the Tan Chin Tuan Chinese Language Scholarship, I spent my summer attending the International Chinese Language Programme at the National Taiwan University. Although that summer was one of the highlights of my college experience, my interest in Chinese Literature really only started when I took Modern Chinese Literature and Film in my second year; before that, I had never really thought that this would be something I would be excited about. My favourite courses at Yale-NUS were all in Chinese Studies, such as Classical Chinese, Ming Imperial Voyages, and Chinese Poetry. In fact, I enjoyed Tales of the Strange so much that I eventually did my Literature Capstone on the zhiguai genre. Looking back, I think a big part of why I enjoyed the Chinese Studies programme so much was because we had so many wonderful professors who knew so much about Chinese Studies and who really encouraged my love for Classical Chinese Literature.