Yongle Xue

COL ’14
Age: 22
Hometown: Shanghai, China
Majors: History and economics

What motivated you to come study here?
The high school that I come from has a culture of studying abroad; it’s very internationally-oriented, although it’s a regular high school in China, not an international school. I think studying abroad gives me a different perspective than studying in China, and also U.S.’s college culture is very different from China’s, so it’s interesting to experience two different culture and challenge myself.

How different is Georgetown from Shanghai?
I didn’t go to a Chinese college, but from what my friends tell me, Chinese universities are generally easier than here. It’s less work; it has more flexibility, and you more free time, whereas here you still have a lot of choices to do what you want to do, but your schedule is always full, you always have class work, extracurriculars and jobs.

What specific areas of history are you most interested in?
At Georgetown we have two geographical concentrations, and for me it’s the United States and East Asia. I actually took more American history courses here because I feel I need to know more about American history. I also got to take some East Asian courses as well, including a graduate seminar last semester, which was very challenging but enjoyable. I think in the future I’m going to focus more on modern China, but in a global context. I’m interested to look at energy history, but more broadly, economic and environmental history, perhaps. I’m writing my senior thesis right now for history on Standard Oil in China in the early 20th century.

Do you hope to translate that to something you can do in the future, like a public policy job?
Because I’m going into a history Ph.D., I hope to become a history professor in the future, but I don’t know what else I want to do, besides being a professor. I do want to write a little bit outside of academia — I’m still exploring different options.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
Hmm … let me think about it. Well, especially my first year, the hardest challenge I’ve had to overcome was classroom discussion, because in Chinese classes you’re not really used to jumping into the discussion. It’s usually like the teacher asks you a question, you raise your hand, then the teacher picks on someone and they answer. But here, it’s less structured, it’s more like free discussion, although some professors do ask questions or something, but a lot of it is led by students, or students can interrupt people. At first, I think it felt strange, and there was a lot of stress because classroom participation is usually part of the grade, so I didn’t want to stay silent and lose part of that grade. I think in my first year I forced myself to raise my hand even if I had nothing to say, and I just thought on the spot. It was good practice, though, after one year, at least. I think starting my sophomore year, I became more comfortable with classroom discussion, and now, in my senior year, I really like classroom discussion; I think it’s a good way to share my thoughts, because when you read a book you have so many emotions or thoughts and you want to share them with people, so it’s a good way [to do that]. Sometimes, it’s actually relaxing because there are so many other things, like papers and leadership stuff, and it’s just nice to sit down and talk to people about interesting stuff.

What’s the biggest change you’ve consciously made in your life?
Coming to the States, of course, because if I stayed back in China, my experience would be pretty predictable. I knew what path I would take, what classes I would take, what leadership positions I want to get in order to have a decent career and future. Here, I think a lot of things are different, and there are a lot of things I haven’t encountered before. There are small things like classroom discussions, but there are big things like questions about whether you want to stay in the States or go back to China in the future. There are a lot of uncertainties and challenges, and I feel that before I was very risk-averse, and I was scared of changes and uncertainties, but now I embrace it and am able to confront these things more comfortably.

What do you think Georgetown has helped you accomplish so far?
Mentors, for sure. They’ve been such a great help, especially my first year, when everything was so new, and my professors helped with my writing, helped me get used to the classroom culture and everything and then later they introduced me to research in my field, so yeah, they’re just great. I think the mentors are the most important thing to happen to me at Georgetown, and they’ve helped me a lot throughout the four years.

What was your favorite class that you’ve taken at Georgetown?
I’ve been thinking about this question on my way here, and it’s just so hard because I like most of my classes. I think one class that really shaped me was the Carroll Forum in the Carroll Fellows Initiative. It was a class for all of the Carroll Fellows freshman year and sophomore year, so it’s a one-year class, freshman spring to sophomore fall. Basically, it just teaches a bunch of different things: thinking skills, writing, reading, research. It’s kind of a class about empowerment and skill training. That’s a class [I’ve liked], but it’s not strictly an academic class. An academic class that really inspired me was European Civilization II with Fr. Carnes, S.J., my freshman spring. That was my first history class here in the States, and I really like his teaching style — he discussions was really enjoyable, and he incorporated a lot of art, like music and paintings, in his lectures, and I really liked his style. Also, I got to learn more about doing history for that course. Because I enjoyed the experience, I want to become a history professor like the ones here, so that kind of led me down a path of a career in academia.

Is there any one cause you feel especially passionate about?
I’m still in the process of exploration, and at times I find it hard to really pinpoint a direction I want to take on certain issues because I think they’re usually very complicated. It’s very hard — if you argue on the one side, there’s so many pros and cons for that. One thing that I’m really interested in exploring is the relationship between modernization and traditions — that’s one thing that really holds my interest. I’m studying history now, but it’s the history of modernization. I think my general interest in that has kind of influenced my general intellectual direction. I became interested in that mainly because of my experience in China, because China is undergoing such rapid modernization and development, and at times some people may feel that traditions are being lost. There are trends among young people to try to find and recover traditions; there are grassroots efforts in China to learn more about Confucianism. There were also some top-down things that had more political implications. I think it’s a very complicated issue — I don’t really know what my argument is. I just hold a general interest in that, and I hope to keep exploring it in my academic studies and also in my observations, writings, and whatever. 

What television character do you see yourself most in?
I’m really into “Dr. Who,” so I think at first I identified myself as more like Rose, because she’s an ordinary girl going to a strange environments, and that’s kind of like my experience — a very conventional household in China to a place that’s very strange and full of challenges. So at first I identified myself as Rose, but then I realized that I don’t really have a Doctor around me, so I kind of need to be my own Doctor, you know? So now I identify more with the Doctor, so I now try to take more initiative with things than following someone. But like I said, the mentors really helped me a great deal, and friends and family. It’s not a solo endeavor, but still, you need to depend on yourself to do a lot of things, with the help of others

Interview by Hanaa Khadraoui