The First “Vanderbilt China Forum” Successfully Launched in Nashville

The first Vanderbilt China Forum was hosted by Global China Connection Vanderbilt Chapter on April 7th, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. The Vanderbilt China Forum is a one-day event that provides both Vanderbilt students and faculty a platform to engage in intellectual dialogues related to China.

Vanderbilt China Forum was led by Crystal Liu, a senior majoring political science from Beijing, and Datura Zhou, a sophomore majoring art history from Shanghai. As a student of comparative political systems, Crystal found a gap between the increasing amount of students who are interested in China and the lack of on campus resources related to China. Therefore, she and Datura decided to launch a China Forum at Vanderbilt to bring out GCC’s goal to build a professional network with people from different disciplines and industries but with the same interest in working with China.

The forum focused on five themes: U.S. – China Relations, China’s Rise and Confucianism’s Revival, education innovation, Chinese contemporary society through media, and contemporary Chinese art. In addition to these four interactive talks and an art exhibition, the forum presented three career panels featuring 12 young professionals during the luncheon time. The three panels are about policy & law, technology, and entrepreneurship respectively.

The Forum attracted 200 students and guests, including staffs from Nashville Mayor’s office, director of Vanderbilt’s Alumni Development office, delegates from the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce, and students from U.C. Berkeley, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and Emory University.

Director of Brookings China Center, Dr. Cheng Li, giving Keynote Speech on the trajectory of U.S.-China Relations

Professor Stephen Angle of the Wesleyan University gives a speech on China’s Reise and Confucianism’s Revival

Policy Career Panel, featuring Ben Wang from Harvard Kennedy School, and Chucheng Feng from Blackpeak Group Hong Kong.

Technology Career Panel featuring Yilun Zhou, PhD candidate concentrating in A.I. at MIT, Yufeng Deng, Chief Technology Officer at Infervision, Jonathan Tang, software engineer at Snapchat, and Yudong Cao, data analyst at Capital One in D.C.

GCC President Crystal Liu greeting Vanderbilt Law School Alumni and Tennessee Chamber of Commerce delegate.

OFO delegates recruiting students at Forum Career Fair

Group picture with parts of the speakers including: Vanderbilt Professor Xiu Cravens, Founder of CNPolitics Kecheng Fang, Founder and CEO of Wall Street Tequila Jerry Sun, Vanderbilt Professor Lijun Song, Founder of Veritas Academy Steve Bai, Co-Founder of Embark China Cai Chen.