<p><a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/chinablog/%5B/url%5D">http://www.yaledailynews.com/chinablog/</a></p>
<p>Looks like a pretty interesting trip. There was a relative there of Yung Wing, the first Chinese person to study at an American University (he graduated from Yale in 1854).</p>
<p>I think it's interesting that the Chinese government wanted students who had little knowledge of China. What an amazing experience for these students!</p>
<p>LA Times article on the same topic:</p>
<p>"BEIJING — A future president of the United States may be among a group of students who landed in China this week. And — sorry, Harvard — he or she goes to Yale.</p>
<p>At least that seems to be the wager Chinese President Hu Jintao made when he invited 60 Yale students and 40 faculty and staff to visit China as his high-profile guests. Apparently mindful that the three most recent U.S. presidents attended Yale, Hu is laying out the red carpet for the delegation.</p>
<p>Other college students can take their backpacking tours of China, freewheeling from noodle shop to hostel. After arriving Wednesday night, the Yale students were whisked in buses from the airport to a landmark hotel close to the Forbidden City, China's center of power. They were given 30 minutes to freshen up before dinner: a multi-course banquet at the Great Hall of the People, where Mao Tse-tung once feted President Nixon and now Hu personally greeted "the Yale 100."...."</p>
<p>Probably easier to put the dictatorship blinders on for students less likely to be studying China. ;)</p>
<p>Regardless, I'm wildly jealous</p>
<p>I met one of the "Yale 100" at Bulldog Days... as a native Chinese who would have loved that kind of opportunity, I was frankly insulted by the way they chose to pass over kids who deserved it in favor of random students. Maybe that was subconsciously part of the reason why I chose Harvard. :P</p>
<p>who are these people who "deserved it"? are you saying that those who deserved it were the native chinese?</p>
<p>No -- people who deserved it are those who had interest, whether native or not (I wouldn't say I deserved it, because I don't put enough effort into my culture). Even if they had confined it to non-Chinese, they should have chosen the most qualified students who had interest in China. To explicitly exclude those students was simply cruel.</p>
<p>ok, as someone who wasn't accepted to be on the trip, I agree with that. My understanding is that they did it mostly by random drawing.</p>
<p>your first post made it sound like you wanted just the native Chinese to be qualified, which would be absurd.</p>
<p>My impression of the reason for not letting people studying Chinese go is that these people already have the opportunity to have time in China paid for by Yale through the Light fellowship. I disagree with this reasoning (partly because it prevented me from going on the trip, partly because I think the sort of experiences the delegation of 100 are having are far different from what a Light fellowship offers) but it certainly has some basis. Those who are very interested in China are given plenty of opportunity to go there on Yale money, just not in the context of this particular trip.</p>
<p>Eh, I happen to know rather well one of the "Yale 100". Nice girl, she just never was interested in China for visitation or for language, doesn't mean she's ignorant.</p>
<p>That said, I'm bothered by Yale's continued niceness with China without demanding that the Chinese government also look into its human rights record. Yale should be foremost an institution for the progression of humanity. Dictatorships are not cool.</p>
<p>lackadaisy: Eh, you missed out by not attending at Yale. Because as a native Chinese, if you wanted to affect change back home, Yale's probably the place to do it :)</p>
<p>the native chinese here get enough opportunities to go to china anyway. unless you're an american-born chinese who have no family in china, then i can see why you'd covet a free trip to the other side of the world so much.</p>
<p>Yes, i too am bothered by Yale pretending to ignore China's human rights record. Hopefully, increased integration with the West will help the communist government rethink its policies.</p>