RI students learn Chinese at Xiamen University

This is the seventh article of a series based on a visit to China by six Indonesian journalists, including The Jakarta Post's Harry Bhaskara, courtesy of the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Indonesian students studying at Xiamen University, in the southern Chinese province of Fujian, have found academic life here challenging.

"The lecturers are good and the libraries have good collections," says Cecilia Sebastian, 23, who hails from the East Java town of Sidoarjo, near Surabaya.

Cecilia is one of some 140 Indonesian students, mostly Chinese Indonesians, who are studying in Xia Ta, as the Xiamen University is locally known. Most of the students are taking Chinese language courses, she said.

The course usually takes two years to complete, but students with some proficiency in the language may take less time. This also applies for those who want to pursue study in other courses such as business or engineering. However, students here said that only a few Indonesians are planning to take further study.

"With a mastery of Chinese language, it will be easier for us to find jobs in Indonesia," said Ling Ling, 27, who comes from Jakarta.

Tuition fees for the course are US$850 per semester. The regular fee is $900, but Indonesian students have been given a $50 discount ever since the anti-Chinese riots of May 1998 in Jakarta.

"The policy has not changed," she said.

The Chinese language has some 66,000 characters but people in general have a mastery of only a few thousand.

In two years, students are expected to master some 3,000 characters, an adequate number to survive in Chinese society. Students learn 300 to 400 characters per semester.

Xiamen University was founded in 1921 by an prominent overseas Chinese by the name of Tan Kah Kee. It was the first university in China to be founded by an overseas Chinese. To date, over 50 academicians of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering undertook all or part of their study at this university.

Vice President of the university, Prof. Ying Zhang, said that Xiamen had a cooperative agreement with a university in Indonesia.

"At present, we have one professor who is teaching Chinese at the University of Hasanuddin in Makassar," he said.

The university also has a regular program to invite businessmen to teach at the university to keep the business faculty abreast of the latest developments, Ying said.

Most of the Indonesian students who come to Xiamen University do so on the recommendation of their relatives who have lived in China and who are familiar with the university. Others deliberately choose to study there.

"In Beijing, there are too many Indo's," says Cecilia, referring to Indonesian students. "I think we can master Chinese here faster because we don't have as much opportunity to speak Indonesian as there are not too many Indonesian students."

Xiamen University's total student population is more than 29,000.

The 500-hectare campus offers a very international setting.

"Besides Chinese, we also practice English with other foreign students," Cecilia said.

The students said in addition to a high level of safety in the city, living costs are about half those of Beijing or Shanghai. A low-cost apartment is about $25 a month, although there are apartments that may cost six times as much. Student dormitories are available from $100 a month. Books cost $10 per semester. In general, living cost for a student in this city is about $200 a month.

"That is if you are a spend-free type of person. Otherwise it could be lower than that," Cecilia said.

Xiamen is a quiet and safe city, the students said.

"Although petty theft, like losing your handphone to pickpockets, does occasionally occur," Ling Ling said.

Not all the students are high school graduates. Some have finished their undergraduate studies elsewhere. Cecilia, for example, graduated from an Australian university in Perth majoring in computer science.

Asked what they missed the most about Indonesia, the students replied, almost in unison, "The food!". They said Chinese food uses different kinds of spices compared to Indonesian food, citing kluek, a large, hard seedling with a black flesh inside, as an example. Kluek is the main spice ingredient for rawon, a popular dish from East Java.