JOSH SNIEGOWSKI (film + video major) writes:
Today we got the chance to talk to Chinese students who are studying in our same fields at Tongji University. Even though I didn’t think this would go too smoothly with the language barrier, everything was awesome. I met two students in particular that I talked with for almost the entire time. Since everyone was unable to pronounce the students' actual names, they told us their “American” names. The two students, Austin and Dura, were incredibly nice and very excited that we were there. Even though we couldn’t leave, Austin wanted to go to his dorm room with a few others and myself to show us some of his animation work. I will definitely remember this for a long time and I hope to keep in contact with the students through email.
Also while at the university, I got the chance to watch a few short normal and animation films. Even though the normal films were good, the animation was really good. I was very happy to get the chance to see what film students were learning in China compared to in America. After lunch we left the school.
After a while of driving, we arrived at Radiance Studios. Since I actually play video games, this was very interesting for me. We got the chance to walk around the studio and actually look at what the programmers were working on. After that, we got to hear from the owner of the studio, who told us a lot of different things about the video-game industry. I know I’m here to view and learn about actual contemporary art at different galleries, but the visit to Radiance was one of the most interesting things I have done yet.
Once our day of learning was over, we got some free time. Almost everyone went to get a massage. This was great and it was also a nice break from all the walking in the freezing cold we had been doing throughout the week. From here everyone went to a DVD store. Even though all the DVDs were most likely pirated, they were sold packaged like any other DVD in America. I ended up getting eight movies and two TV series for the equivalent of $30. By this time it was late and everyone headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.
Josh Sniegowski is a sophomore in the film + video department.
