‘I’ve been China for six years.” Though Oliver began his BI-Fudan MBA program last year, this gentlemanlike German has a thorough understanding about Chinese culture and history for quite a long time. He even married a beautiful Chinese girl and settled down in Suzhou. Are there any interesting stories about this lovely Chinese son-in-law? How does China look like in his eye? Let’s take a look.

“One couldn’t comment China briefly.”

“It’s difficult to comment China in one or two sentences, because it owns vast land and rich culture.” Oliver has an amazingly profound understanding about China.

Ten years ago, Oliver traveled to China alone, visiting three typical Chinese cities. They are Beijing, Shanghai and Xi’an respectively. As the capital of China, Beijing enjoys a strong sense of royalty, especially the Forbidden City. Shanghai, being regarded as Asian New York, has witnessed the prosperity and fashion in China. Xi’an, the synonym of history, the silent warriors reveal its abundant historical impressiveness. “In a nutshell, it’s hard for you to sum up China. And after traveling to diversified Chinese cities, I now prefer Suzhou most, for it’s a nice combination of modern life and pastoral peace.”

And what about Oliver’s motherland? Faced with such question, Oliver introduced the German features to us. “Beer, soccer and scrupulous work ethics are the three major labels when talking about German.” Oliver said the cultural differences between the two countries are quite obvious, for instance, Germans are more straightforward when dealing things and Germans would like to keep in certain distances in public places.

All these years, Oliver has tried to adapt himself to the different qualities of oriental and occidental world. “In spite of all those disparities, we share many in common, we’re all developing our nation, going every strength to better serve its people.” Oliver is clear that to be a “Cultural Intelligent” isn’t that easy just like the saying goes “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

“I’ll have more to learn.”

“Wish School of Management, Fudan University will be more globalized.”

Another way for Oliver to feel China is through taking higher education here. He started taking the BI-Fudan MBA courses since last June. Every other month, he travels from Suzhou to Shanghai to have the four days leaning at School of Management, Fudan University. And during those days without courses, there are great numbers of leaning materials to read, many case studies to discuss with classmates. Isn’t it too busy for Oliver-a father with a new born baby?

“Sometimes time is really limited, and to tell you the truth, taking MBA courses is my wife’s decision for me at the beginning.” Oliver used to be an engineer in Germany, being responsible for those technical issues. However, he has been appointed as a manager for production in China, which makes him feel the lack of business and management expertise. So Oliver’s wife recommended BI-Fudan MBA program to him, cause one of her friends once participated in this program and commented highly on its educational level, hardware infrastructure, students profiles, the “price verses ratio” value, and so forth. As a result, Oliver came for BI-Fudan MBA program last summer without hesitation.

Having learned for about a year, Oliver is fond of the learning atmosphere here, especially the courses filled with case studies. Though the course like accounting hasn’t presented its practicality in his work currently, Oliver believes all the accumulation about business expertise will be put into practice sooner or later. “I couldn’t say all I’ve learned through these courses are of high efficiency, but they definitely help me become a person with management philosophy, largely promoting my communication with my colleagues.” While Oliver said so, we happened to come across a Chinese professor of BI-Fudan MBA program. After their brief greetings, Oliver told me sincerely, “I’m really grateful to those professors who help me a lot.”

In BI-Fudan MBA program, two-thirds of teachers come from BI Norwegian School of Management, while one-third from School of Management Fudan University. Furthermore, Fudan assists co-teachers for every course to give students tutorship and Chinese business inputs. Such arrangements greatly satisfy students from different backgrounds.

Oliver also finds there’re some disparities between Chinese and Western educational style, “Chinese professors pay more attention to teaching, while foreign professors prefer communication with students, the latter makes the class more open and maybe more fun.” In his point of view, MBA courses are supposed to contain more fresh case studies, which will be discussed heatedly through classes. “And that’s what exactly happens in western classes.”

Despite of the differences between eastern and western teaching style, Oliver feel both help him much----absorb knowledge in different ways, from varied dimensions. The highly combined cultural melting promotes people to gain a global vision.

Lastly, when Oliver was asked if there were something could be further improved here. His answer was, “The infrastructure and teaching staff are great, the only thing I hope School of Management Fudan University maybe is to become more globalized, e.g. employing more foreign professors. Oh, what’s more, it’ll be better if our School Journal has an English edition, haha.”

2003, in China; 2004, in Singapore; 2006, back to China.

Oliver doesn’t know where will be his next stop, but one thing is certain: wherever he goes, School of Management Fudan University in China will be cherished in his memory.

From School of Management Fudan University Journal