{"id":96672,"date":"2019-11-14T08:30:40","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T07:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/set-udefra-i-kina-forventer-man-at-ph-d-studerende-skaenker-te-til-professoren\/"},"modified":"2019-11-14T09:50:59","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T08:50:59","slug":"in-china-they-expect-phd-students-to-serve-tea-to-professors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/in-china-they-expect-phd-students-to-serve-tea-to-professors\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00bbIn China, they expect PhD students to serve tea to professors\u00ab"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yanqi Li has invited me in to the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. Here, behind yellow animal stalls surrounded by students in white coats, she has spent most of her academic career, thousands of kilometres away from her family in the Shaanxi province.<\/em><\/p>\n

In northern China, she opted for the wrong study programme on her first try. If she wanted to change tracks, she would have to take a foreign detour. A bit randomly, she ended up in a small country, about which she only knew one thing: The 19th century fairy tale writer H. C. Andersen. Today she knows more. For example, that you can have a career at university and still look after young children, and with the approval of your employer.<\/em><\/p>\n

It started to get popular to go abroad and study<\/strong> while I went to university in China. My friends and I were in no doubt that we should go abroad also. Back then I was training to be a nurse. It wasn’t a subject that I wanted to pursue myself. But the education process runs fast in China, and once you are on one track, you can’t just jump off and choose another study programme. For me, a study abroad was therefore a chance to switch courses and experience the world at the same time.<\/p>\n

\n

YANQI LI<\/p>\n

\/ 35 years of age<\/p>\n

\/ Living in Copenhagen with her husband and two-year-old daughter<\/p>\n

\/ Born and raised in Xi’an in the Shaanxi province, China<\/p>\n

\/ Has studied both in China and Denmark<\/p>\n

\/ PhD in comparative paediatrics and nutrition, University of Copenhagen<\/p>\n

\/ Assistant professor and clinical coordinator in the Section for Comparative Paediatrics and Nutrition at the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

At that time, we only had limited access to the internet<\/strong>. We had therefore little contact with the outside world. I was a little late getting started with my application, so there weren’t that many places I could choose from. It ended with me getting a place on the programme in Food Science and Technology at DTU, the Danish Technical University. I knew nothing about Denmark beyond H. C. Andersen, but I was happy to go.<\/p>\n

The Danish university world was a big culture shock for me.<\/strong> I was accustomed to lectures, where you as students listened and took notes, and where the exams often consisted of written exams and Q and As. Here, the students discuss with the lecturers, and I had to learn to do group work and do group reports. It was difficult for me to get used to this way of learning.<\/p>\n

READ ALSO<\/strong>: Outside perspective: \u00bbDanish students are left to take care of themselves\u00ab<\/a><\/p>\n

I was, on the other hand, positively surprised by my new home<\/strong>. I had been assigned a room in some red containers that had been turned into temporary student housing. Many of the others thought that this was a wretched place to live, but I found it super cool. In China, I had lived together with seven other students in a small room. Now I suddenly had a room for myself.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t something I had planned,<\/strong> but I got the opportunity to do a PhD In nutrition, which I decided to accept. My parents have motivated me to do further study ever since I was very small. It was in the cards that I was supposed to do this. And it turned out to be a good decision. It is here that I met the man that is now my husband and the father of my child, and I have some great colleagues here.<\/p>\n

Danish professors are typically very relaxed and down to earth.<\/strong> They do not focus on status and money, and unlike many foreign professors, they do not expect to fly on first class or live in five-star hotels when they travel with work. They also don’t mind saying their honest opinion. I like that.
\n
\nIn China you don\u2019t discuss with professors o<\/strong>r contradict them if you disagree with them. There is a completely different hierarchy. It is expected of PhD students that they serve tea to professors and carry their briefcases. In Denmark, it is the other way around. Here, it is the professor who takes your bag if you are travelling together.<\/p>\n

READ ALSO:<\/strong> Outside perspective: \u00bbIn Denmark, you don\u2019t just network to get something\u00ab<\/a><\/p>\n

It is deeply embedded in the way Chinese people are brought up<\/strong>, that you show respect for your elders. This is why professors are addressed by their surname and title. Never by their first name. I like the way it is here in Denmark. At the same time, it is important to me that my daughter learns to show respect for other people. Courtesy, humility and persistence are Chinese values that I would like to pass on to my own child.<\/p>\n

\n

New perspective<\/p>\n

At the University of Copenhagen, more than one third of all researchers and teaching staff come from abroad. In this series, you can meet some of them and read about what they think of working at the University of Copenhagen. What is the working culture like relative to their home countries? What has surprised them the most? And how do they describe their Danish colleagues?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In general, working culture is a lot different<\/strong> in China. I have a friend who is a researcher in China. She has two children and was back at work a month after she had given birth. In fact, you are entitled to seven months maternity leave, but the reality is that the researcher risks losing their projects if they take it. In Denmark, you are told that it is okay to reduce your workload when you have young children. There is huge support and a much greater focus on the need for a balance between family and working life.<\/p>\n

I do think that many Danish young people<\/strong> follow their own inclinations to too great an extent. They only do what they want. And it seems as if many Danish parents find it difficult to take responsibility for their children. I don’t want to be a controlling parent myself. But I also think that children should not be allowed to decide everything on their own. Sometimes you have to do something that is tough or boring in life, as it will lead to something good in the long term.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yanqi Li got off a Chinese bullet train and, after many a detour, ended up as assistant professor on Frederiksberg Campus. The best thing about Denmark is that you can be a scientist and parent at the same time, she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":93379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,43],"tags":[1086,475,2416],"class_list":["post-96672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-culture","tag-internationale-en","tag-internationalisering-en","tag-set-udefra-en","expression-portrait_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u00bbIn China, they expect PhD students to serve tea to professors\u00ab<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/in-china-they-expect-phd-students-to-serve-tea-to-professors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u00bbIn China, they expect PhD students to serve tea to professors\u00ab\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yanqi Li got off a Chinese bullet train and, after many a detour, ended up as assistant professor on Frederiksberg Campus. 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Li havde ikke selv \u00f8nsket at l\u00e6se til sygeplejerske, men i Kina kan man ikke v\u00e6lge om, n\u00e5r man f\u00f8rst er steget p\u00e5 uddannelsernes h\u00f8jhastighedstog. Et studie\u00e5r i Danmark f\u00f8rte til et ph.d.-tilbud, og i dag er hun adjunkt p\u00e5 Institut for Veterin\u00e6r- og Husdyrvidenskab. Det bedste er, at man i Danmark kan v\u00e6re forsker og for\u00e6lder samtidig. ","use_post_excerpt":true},{"acf_fc_layout":"Byline","is_author":false,"contributors":[{"use_registered_user":false,"user":{"ID":69,"user_firstname":"Signe","user_lastname":"Bjerre","nickname":"sbjerre","user_nicename":"sbjerre","display_name":"Signe Bjerre","user_email":"info@signebjerre.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2019-01-07 12:27:43","user_description":"","user_avatar":"<img alt='' src='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b7cfe159c1b4d3130a4bd6c57bde95e38aa1fc14ecb84021dd8ffb53ff221916?s=96&d=identicon&r=g' srcset='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b7cfe159c1b4d3130a4bd6c57bde95e38aa1fc14ecb84021dd8ffb53ff221916?s=192&d=identicon&r=g 2x' class='avatar avatar-96 photo' height='96' width='96' loading='lazy' decoding='async'\/>"},"contributor_name":"Told to","contributor_title":"journalist Signe Bjerre","contributor_image":false}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p><em>Yanqi Li has invited me in to the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. Here, behind yellow animal stalls surrounded by students in white coats, she has spent most of her academic career, thousands of kilometres away from her family in the Shaanxi province.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In northern China, she opted for the wrong study programme on her first try. If she wanted to change tracks, she would have to take a foreign detour. A bit randomly, she ended up in a small country, about which she only knew one thing: The 19th century fairy tale writer H. C. Andersen. Today she knows more. For example, that you can have a career at university and still look after young children, and with the approval of your employer.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>It started to get popular to go abroad and study<\/strong> while I went to university in China. My friends and I were in no doubt that we should go abroad also. Back then I was training to be a nurse. It wasn’t a subject that I wanted to pursue myself. But the education process runs fast in China, and once you are on one track, you can’t just jump off and choose another study programme. For me, a study abroad was therefore a chance to switch courses and experience the world at the same time.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\">\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">YANQI LI<\/p>\n<p>\/ 35 years of age<\/p>\n<p>\/ Living in Copenhagen with her husband and two-year-old daughter<\/p>\n<p>\/ Born and raised in Xi’an in the Shaanxi province, China<\/p>\n<p>\/ Has studied both in China and Denmark<\/p>\n<p>\/ PhD in comparative paediatrics and nutrition, University of Copenhagen<\/p>\n<p>\/ Assistant professor and clinical coordinator in the Section for Comparative Paediatrics and Nutrition at the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>At that time, we only had limited access to the internet<\/strong>. We had therefore little contact with the outside world. I was a little late getting started with my application, so there weren’t that many places I could choose from. It ended with me getting a place on the programme in Food Science and Technology at DTU, the Danish Technical University. I knew nothing about Denmark beyond H. C. Andersen, but I was happy to go.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Danish university world was a big culture shock for me.<\/strong> I was accustomed to lectures, where you as students listened and took notes, and where the exams often consisted of written exams and Q and As. Here, the students discuss with the lecturers, and I had to learn to do group work and do group reports. It was difficult for me to get used to this way of learning.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ ALSO<\/strong>:<a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/outside-perspective-danish-students-are-left-to-take-care-of-themselves\/\"> Outside perspective: \u00bbDanish students are left to take care of themselves\u00ab<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>I was, on the other hand, positively surprised by my new home<\/strong>. I had been assigned a room in some red containers that had been turned into temporary student housing. Many of the others thought that this was a wretched place to live, but I found it super cool. In China, I had lived together with seven other students in a small room. Now I suddenly had a room for myself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It wasn’t something I had planned,<\/strong> but I got the opportunity to do a PhD In nutrition, which I decided to accept. My parents have motivated me to do further study ever since I was very small. It was in the cards that I was supposed to do this. And it turned out to be a good decision. It is here that I met the man that is now my husband and the father of my child, and I have some great colleagues here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Danish professors are typically very relaxed and down to earth.<\/strong> They do not focus on status and money, and unlike many foreign professors, they do not expect to fly on first class or live in five-star hotels when they travel with work. They also don’t mind saying their honest opinion. I like that.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Quote","quote":"As a researcher [in China], you risk losing your projects if you use up all your maternity leave.","quotee":"*","style":"extended"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p><strong>In China you don\u2019t discuss with professors o<\/strong>r contradict them if you disagree with them. There is a completely different hierarchy. It is expected of PhD students that they serve tea to professors and carry their briefcases. In Denmark, it is the other way around. Here, it is the professor who takes your bag if you are travelling together.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ ALSO:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/outside-perspective-in-denmark-you-dont-just-network-to-get-something\/\">Outside perspective: \u00bbIn Denmark, you don\u2019t just network to get something\u00ab<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>It is deeply embedded in the way Chinese people are brought up<\/strong>, that you show respect for your elders. This is why professors are addressed by their surname and title. Never by their first name. I like the way it is here in Denmark. At the same time, it is important to me that my daughter learns to show respect for other people. Courtesy, humility and persistence are Chinese values that I would like to pass on to my own child.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\">\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">New perspective<\/p>\n<p>At the University of Copenhagen, more than one third of all researchers and teaching staff come from abroad. In this series, you can meet some of them and read about what they think of working at the University of Copenhagen. What is the working culture like relative to their home countries? What has surprised them the most? And how do they describe their Danish colleagues?<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>In general, working culture is a lot different<\/strong> in China. I have a friend who is a researcher in China. She has two children and was back at work a month after she had given birth. In fact, you are entitled to seven months maternity leave, but the reality is that the researcher risks losing their projects if they take it. In Denmark, you are told that it is okay to reduce your workload when you have young children. There is huge support and a much greater focus on the need for a balance between family and working life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I do think that many Danish young people<\/strong> follow their own inclinations to too great an extent. They only do what they want. And it seems as if many Danish parents find it difficult to take responsibility for their children. I don’t want to be a controlling parent myself. But I also think that children should not be allowed to decide everything on their own. Sometimes you have to do something that is tough or boring in life, as it will lead to something good in the long term.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"ArticleEnd"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Newsletter","lang_select":"Dansk","identifier":"Newsletter","headline":"Receive a weekly newsletter in your inbox","button_text":"Tilmeld nu","class":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"OtherStories","headline":"","hand_picked_posts":true,"references":[{"reference":{"ID":89505,"post_author":"69","post_date":"2019-07-08 06:16:21","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-08 04:16:21","post_content":"<strong>I came here with my family ten months ago<\/strong>, when I accepted a position as professor at the Department of Sociology. At the time, we had no plans to leave England. Over the course of the last five to six years, England has been falling apart politically and economically. Inequality is on the rise, and the quality of education at the universities has declined. It is not a society that I wish to raise my children in.\r\n\r\n<strong>It has always been my dream<\/strong> to expose my children to a different kind of society than the English one but at the same time, we did not wish to just settle down anywhere. Danish society is a good society, and Copenhagen is a very civilized city. It\u2019s a great place to raise your children. Everything works here. Of course, you pay a price for that in the form of a high tax burden. But as I see it, it is all worth it.\r\n<div class=\"factbox\">\r\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">NEW PERSPECTIVES<\/p>\r\nAt the University of Copenhagen more than a third of all researchers and teachers come from abroad. Over the summer, the University Post will present you to some of them and you will hear their stories of arriving in Denmark and working at the university. How does Danish work culture differ compared to their home countries, what have the biggest surprises been, and how would they describe their Danish colleagues?\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<strong>At English universities faculty members are under much greater pressure than they are here.<\/strong> It is clear to me that the system here is much more well-funded. I feel that I have time to complete my tasks, more so than I did in England, and there\u2019s also time to spend with my family.\r\n\r\nMost researchers never cease working, no matter where they are in the world. But there\u2019s a difference in what is expected of us from the institutions and whether or not working late hours is driven by curiosity or a sense of duty. At the University of Copenhagen, you can work a 35-hour week, and you are not expected to stay at the office past 4 p.m.\r\n\r\n<strong>In Denmark people take their lunch breaks.<\/strong> That\u2019s something I have had to get used to, because that is far from the standard in England. Every day at noon, my colleagues leave their desks and head to the cafeteria. You can set your clock by it. It\u2019s very funny. At London College University, where I used to work, no one took lunch breaks. People would sit in front of their computers and eat their sandwiches there.\r\n<blockquote>At London College University, where I used to work, no one took lunch breaks. People would sit in front of their computers and eat their sandwiches there.<\/blockquote>\r\n<strong>I like that Danes invest themselves socially<\/strong> at their workplaces. It means a lot in terms of fostering a sense of community. Over the course of the winter we held two seminars at the Department of Sociology, one was a day long and the other took place over two days, and everyone participated. In England you could never expect employees at a university to take out two days of their schedules to spend time with their colleagues. It is unimaginable. Personal relations are simply not that important. But they are here, and I really like that. You get to know your colleagues as individuals and not simply people you happen to work with.\n<!-- end of module 1 -->\n<strong>Some of my Danish colleagues say that Danish students are very demanding<\/strong> in terms of how they are treated. Personally, I haven\u2019t experienced a great difference between Danish and English students. English students are also demanding but that is because their education is extremely costly. Danish students are so because there is a greater tradition of democracy in Denmark. Here students are used to being heard, and I think that is a good thing.\r\n<div class=\"factbox\">\r\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">Claire Maxwell<\/p>\r\n\/ 44 years old\r\n\r\n\/ Of Australian and German descent but has lived in England for most of her life.\r\n\r\n\/ Professor of sociology\r\n\r\n\/ Lives in Hellerup with her husband and two children ages 12 and 9\r\n\r\n\/ Previously employed as a professor at University College London\r\n\r\n\/ Moved to Denmark in August 2018 and has since then been a permanent faculty member at the Department of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<strong>The first thing I noticed, after I moved to Denmark<\/strong>, was how easy it is to get around. It\u2019s a feeling of complete bliss when I jump on my bike and head to work every day. Danes are used to being able to get around everywhere on their bikes, but to me and my family it is a very special thing.\r\n\r\n<strong>Another thing where Denmark is very different from England<\/strong> is the level of trust here. I think it is amazing that I can leave my bike unlocked in front of my house or the store and not worry that it will get stolen, and it\u2019s nice that schools don\u2019t have to worry about things like risk evaluation and student safety. This is how a society should be.\r\n\r\n<strong>My children are safer and act more independently here.<\/strong> They can take the train or the bus on their own, and they bike to school. In Oxford, where we used to live, that was not the case. There is a greater level of social and economical inequality in Oxford compared to Copenhagen. It\u2019s not as safe to walk the streets alone there. It makes me happy that my children get to experience the freedom and safety they are afforded here.\r\n\r\n<em><strong>READ MORE: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/outside-perspective-danes-call-it-like-they-see-it\/\">Outside perspective: Danes call it like they see it<\/a><\/em>\n<!-- end of module 2 -->\n","post_title":"Outside perspective: \u00bbI like that Danes invest themselves socially at their workplaces\u00ab","post_excerpt":"Professor of sociology Claire Maxwell and her family moved from England to Denmark. The workplace culture at the University of Copenhagen is very different from anything she is used to. Among other things, the sanctity of the Danish lunchbreak came as a surprise her.","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"outside-perspective-i-like-that-danes-invest-themselves-socially-at-their-workplaces","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-10-04 11:53:47","post_modified_gmt":"2019-10-04 09:53:47","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/set-udefra-jeg-kan-godt-lide-at-danskere-investerer-tid-i-det-sociale\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}}],"category":false,"theme":false,"number_of_posts":"4","style":"default"}]},"taxonomyData":{"category":[{"term_id":44,"name":"Campus","slug":"campus","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":44,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1547,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":43,"name":"Culture","slug":"culture","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":43,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":562,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[{"term_id":1086,"name":"Internationale","slug":"internationale-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1086,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":475,"name":"Internationalisering","slug":"internationalisering-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":475,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":2416,"name":"set udefra","slug":"set-udefra-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2416,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw"}],"post_format":[],"expression":[{"term_id":14,"name":"Portrait Article","slug":"portrait_article","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":14,"taxonomy":"expression","description":"","parent":0,"count":796,"filter":"raw"}],"translation_priority":[]},"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yanqili2web-1280x854.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96672"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96685,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96672\/revisions\/96685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}