Written by: Zhang Danhua
Posted on: November 22, 2018 | 
| 中文
Bai Zhenguo
After graduating from high school, Ekrem Demirkale (Chinese name: Bai Zhenguo), a young man from Turkey, was encouraged by his father to study at the Northwestern University in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. On July 12th, 2015, Ekrem set out on a 51-day tour from Xi'an, and traveled nearly 30,000 kilometers in seven provinces and regions, including Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai, Gansu, Xinjiang and Guangxi. Ekrem recorded many interesting stories on the journey with his camera and pen, and later he collected the stories and published them in his book “51 Days Journey in China: A Turk’s Cultural Experience in Western China.” The young Turkish man loves photography and has also passed the HSK-6 examination, the highest level of the Chinese language exam for foreigners. In his journey, he was surprised to find that many ethnic groups in China have their own languages, and that the local governments also generally stipulate that the names of public buildings, such as railway stations, must be labeled in both mandarin and local ethnic languages. "I find that the Chinese government is actually very inclusive of ethnic minorities,” Ekrem said.
One day, Ekrem heard a popular folk song about Beihai (The North Sea), and decided to pay a visit to the place. He came to the Weizhou Island in Beihai city of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. "The local people spoke a dialect which I could not understand. There was only one bank on the island, and I could not use my bank card to withdraw money from it. When the locals saw that I really needed help, they sent me food and offered me money for my return ticket. I was very touched by the hospitality of the islanders. And now, we still send greetings to each other on holidays,” he recalled.
"The Northwestern University has established the Silk Road Research Institute and the Central Asia College for systematic studies on the Silk Road, and now they are building a think-tank to carry out international education cooperation with countries along the Silk Road." Guo Lihong, president of the Northwestern University, said that the university’s Central Asia College trains more than 300 overseas students from countries along the Silk Road annually, which account for over 60% of the total number of its overseas students.
In October 2017, Ekrem's younger sister followed his footsteps to Northwestern University. She planned to learn Chinese for a year before choosing her major. Ekrem gave her a Chinese name: “Bai Luyuan,” which is also the name of a famous Chinese novel, literally translated as White Deer Plain. Ekrem explained that in the Turkish culture, place names can also be used as people’s names. In Turkish, "white" represents peace and purity, and "deer" represents gentleness, so the meanings of the two characters are very beautiful. Ekrem said with a smile that a Chinese friend had known him for five years and still could not remember his Chinese name, but could always blurt out "Bai Luyuan" every time he saw his sister.
In Beijing and Xi'an, Bai Luyuan took the high speed rail and the subway, and tried to pay for shopping with her mobile phone with the help of a friend. She told her brother joyfully, “It is amazing! Even many developed countries in Europe do not have this technology. This is what many Turks do not know about China."
When recalling the decision made at the beginning, Ekrem felt that there seemed to be a kind of light leading him to China. "When I graduated from high school, most of my classmates chose to study in Europe and U.S. and only I chose to study in China. Many people asked me: ‘Why do you want to study in China, a country you know nothing about?’ My answer was that it was because I did not understand her that I longed for learning about this mysterious country. The more I know about her, the more I want to be close to her.”
After coming to Xi'an, the young man found that many Chinese people knew that Turkey has hot air balloons, but did not know that the Aegean Sea can also be seen in Turkey. "It is necessary for China and Turkey to carry out cultural exchanges." When he was a freshman, he began sharing the history, culture and food of Turkey with his class, and also played documentaries about Turkey for his classmates. “After four years, my classmates all became experts on Turkey!”
In 2017, after graduating from the Journalism School of Northwestern University, with a major in advertising, Ekrem chose to pursue his master’s degree in drama, film and television at the Arts School. For his future plans, he hopes to continue his PhD studies in China. "If we have good projects, the Chinese government will support us in starting a business. This is a really good policy.” He said that his greatest wish for this year is to establish a China-Turkey Cultural Association in Xi'an, to use film, literature and other means to promote Turkish culture in China, and vice versa.
Translated by Xu Donglin
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