Journey to fulfillment

If it hadn't been for my interest in Chinese culture, I wouldn't have enrolled at University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. As a graduate student at the university's School of Public Affairs and Administration, I participated in many seminars and cultural activities, which made me all the more passionate about China.

I first became interested in Chinese culture as a teenager. I have always been curious about this ancient civilization and its highly complex language and distinctive cuisines. To a Moroccan like me, China looked like another planet I wanted to explore.

The first step I took was to learn the language, even though I was expected to learn Spanish as a third language like everyone else and choose Europe as the destination of my studies abroad. But I stuck to my original choice and joined the Confucius Institute. Confucius Institutes are nonprofit public institutions established to help people in other countries better understand China by promoting Chinese language and culture and supporting local teaching of standard Chinese. After one month of learning, I decided to travel to China for the first time. I spent a whole month in Beijing and Tianjin. On my way back to Morocco, I decided I would return to China one day, because visiting a place as a tourist isn't enough to truly learn about a culture.

One year later, in 2019, I found myself in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, alone with my suitcase and backpack, looking for Nanjing University. I was determined to learn the language there. And my passion for learning and exploring took me all the way from Nanjing to UESTC in Chengdu. University life is definitely not just about participating in activities; my career goal was to become a good administrator by combining theoretical knowledge and lessons from the Chinese experience. Something you cannot accomplish without delving deep into the culture.

One of the most significant moments in my life at UESTC was when I had the opportunity as an international student to make a short film about the Sanxingdui Ruins, an archaeological site and a treasure trove of Bronze Age culture in modern Guanghan, Sichuan, which later inspired me to go into media studies. As a participant in a youth film project, I directed, shot and edited the short film The Head Turners. I was responsible for coming up with an original storyline to convey that history is not all about dead people and China doesn't only have the Great Wall. This experience showed me another side of the 5,000-year-strong Chinese civilization.

Making the short film was hard work. I was shooting from dawn to dusk. It was exhausting but all worth it. I was determined to show the beauty of Sanxingdui through my lens. When we wrapped, Xinhua News Agency, China's official state news agency, immediately reached out for an interview and published an article about my experiences in Sanxingdui.

A few months later, Shanghai's Dragon Television got in touch, asking me if I wanted to be part of a documentary on global culture. We sat down for an interview and then filmed my daily life on campus as well as me working at the Jinsha Site Museum, an archaeological site museum in Chengdu. That's when I knew I had really achieved one of my goals for coming to the country. It motivated me to continue my journey and pursue Ph.D. studies in China, combining my passion for Chinese culture, language, administration and media.

And so, today, I am a Ph.D. student at Shenzhen University studying political communication. I hope I can combine my experiences in China and my knowledge to contribute to China-Morocco relations.