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On a clear skied Friday September 7th, 2nd Year UCLan Chinese department student Richard William Stuttard (上官宇) full of content arrived at China’s most famous and prestigious university – Peking University, Beijing, China. He will study at Peking University’s Chinese language department for one year, in which he will enjoy China’s full-year Confucius Institute scholarship. The scholarship covers the full year’s tuition fee, accommodation fee, a living stipend, HSK & HSKK fees, as well as medical insurance. According to Peking University’s current standard tuition fee and accommodation fee, the tuition fee stands at 26,000RMB, the accommodation fee is 35,000RMB, and including the living stipend of 2,500RMB every month, this means that in total the scholarship covers more than 100,000 RMB. At the current exchange rate, it is equal to more than £11,000. Due to excellent grades, Richard was also awarded last year’s UCLan International Travel Bursary, amounting to £850.
Before leaving the UK to go to Beijing, Richard specially came to UCLan’s Confucius Institute to bid farewell to Song Laihui Laoshi, and his other Chinese teachers. He expressed his great thanks to all of UCLan’s Chinese department and Confucius Institute’s teachers for all of their teaching and help; he was full of emotion while looking back at his experiences and development.
While in high school, Richard completely indulged himself in online games, he was not diligent in his studies, rather he would spend all his time playing computer games. As a result, his grades were not good, and he did not pass his AS level exams. Afterwards, although he switched to a different sixth form college, he still did not pass his A-level exams, and thus dropped out of sixth form. From then onwards, he spent all of his time at home completely indulged in online computer games. He became dispirited, grew a moustache and long hair, and passed the next 3 years like this. Until one day he unexpectedly received a life-changing opportunity; he went to Yinchuan, Ningxia, China to compete in an offline computer game competition. He said that after arriving in China this first time, he personally saw Chinese societies’ great progress and quick expansion, Chinese people’s friendliness, warmth and diligent work attitude, and also foreigners who were able to speak Chinese who lived happily in China. During this time in China, everything that he experienced stirred his feelings and was a spark for him to change himself. Although his performance at that competition was not good, he gained huge motivation. From then onwards he decided that he would completely change himself, including the decision to begin to study Chinese. He shaved off his moustache, cut his long hair, and would no longer indulge himself in online games. Next, he found a part-time job working at a supermarket and at the same time began to self-study his A-levels. After half a years diligent hard-work, he took his A-level exams as an independent candidate. Finally, he passed his A-level exams and would be able to enter University. During this time he applied to UCLan, and in September 2016 he arrived at UCLan to begin studying the undergraduate course Business Management and Chinese. At the University of Central Lancashire, Richard met many very patient and hardworking teachers. Under their continuous support and help in a wide array of aspects, he quickly developed. In addition, through regular Chinese classes, his Chinese level improved very quickly, he gave himself high goals; knowing that in the future his career would for certain involve Chinese, he knew that his Chinese studies were very important. After arriving at UCLan, he completely rid himself of him of online games, instead he used the majority of his time to study Chinese; on average he would everyday study Chinese for more than 8 hours. During class he would take the initiative to contribute in discussions, help teachers and classmates, preview ahead of classes and review afterwards, and complete his homework to a very high quality and quantity. For much of this time he would take the initiative upon himself, for example in one of his classes his teacher would encourage everyone to practice writing Chinese characters after class, from then on Richard would everyday practice writing characters, including both new vocabulary and texts. Without a break, even during the school holidays he would continue to practice his writing. Afterwards his teacher would look through his work and correct any errors; every time his homework would be of the highest quantity and quality among all of his classmates. Furthermore, he enjoyed taking the initiative to speak Chinese with his teachers and Chinese friends, sometimes for 2 to 3 hours at a time. To him, studying Chinese is an passion and a mission, it is a platform to realise his life goals, even more so it is a hobby and great pleasure for Richard. In this way his Chinese level quickly improved, during his 2 years at UCLan’s Chinese department his grades were always excellent. Within 2 years, he passed HSK 2, HSK 3, HSK 4, HSKK Intermediate, and even HSK 5. His HSK 2 score was 160/200, HSK 3 - 296/300, HSK 4 - 292/300, HSKK Intermediate - 80/100, and HSK 5 - 270/300.
Through his hard work Richard obtained excellent grades, in addition to his excellent moral character, he gained all of his teachers’ appreciation and his classmates’ respect, and as a result gained hard to come by opportunities. During the process of students preparing and applying to Chinese universities for their year abroad, UCLan’s Confucius Institute Director Feixia Yu and Business Management and Chinese Course Leader Dr Sunny Xin Liu personally wrote recommendations letters for him, UCLan International Travel Bursary’s committee approved his application, and after Peking University saw his list of results and recommendation letters they very quickly sent out a certificate of enrolment, as well as awarding him a full Confucius Institute scholarship.
Richard has repeatedly said that it is because of China, Chinese people and studying Chinese that changed his life. He has repeatedly expressed that he is very thankful to UCLan’s Chinese department’s teachers for their teaching and help. He will certainly continue to live up to his teacher’s expectations, take full advantage of this valuable opportunity to study at Peking University; study diligently, and strive to pass HSK 6 before the end of his year abroad. After his year in Beijing, Richard hopes he will have the chance to make UCLan proud by first representing UCLan at the 2019 UK Chinese Bridge Competition, then hopefully quality for the worldwide competition held in China.
University of Central Lancashire’s Confucius Institute
By Laihui Song
Richard when he was immersed in online games.
September 2015 - Richard when he went to Yinchuan, Ningxia, China to compete in a computer game competition.
Richard’s HSK 4 certificate.
Richard’s complete table of HSK results.
Richard’s Peking University and award of a full Confucius Institute Scholarship certificate (Chinese).
Richard’s Peking University and award of a full Confucius Institute Scholarship certificate (English).
September 2018 – Richard studying at Peking University.