[Youth along the Silk Road Praise China] Young Sinologist Falls in Love with China

There are a group of young people from the Belt and Road countries. They are studying, traveling, working, or living in China, and therefore bound up with China. They have been witnessing the rapid change of China, sharing their own stories about China with others, and praising China for its change.

Recently, CRI Online has been releasing a series of news reports, Youth along the Silk Road Praise China, to listen to these young people's stories about China.

Yezi's giving a speech during the opening ceremony of 2018 Visiting Program for Young Sinologists(Photo by Guosong Wan)

The protagonist of this episode is Despotović Jelena, a sinologist from Serbia, whose Chinese name is Yezi. This July, the journalist met Yezi at the opening ceremony of 2018 Visiting Program for Young Sinologists.

In 2007, Yezi was enrolled in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature in the University of Belgrade, and then in 2009, she attended the eighth "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Chinese Students as one of the Serbian representatives. During the competition, Yezi met many Chinese friends and international students studying Chinese, and got to know how life was like in China. "I found myself deeply fall in love with China, and I decided to come to China again," said Yezi.

After undergraduate studies, Yezi won a scholarship for the Master of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (MTCSOL), and then she spent two years in the Communication University of China for her master's degree. Now Yezi is working on her doctor's degree in the University of Belgrade, and her research program is the Study on Chinese Culture and Characteristics through the Symbol of Chinese Dragon. She wished that her research can contribute to the friendship between China and Serbia.

Yezi said that Serbia had been cooperating with China and had made achievements in various fields after China had proposed Belt and Road Initiative. "The projects under the Belt and Road Initiative are promoting the friendship between China and Serbia. Through the Belt and Road Initiative, people from the two countries will know each other better," said Yezi.