Despite having one of the largest international student populaces in the country with more than 4,000 international students at the University of Wisconsin, some students feel there is not enough conversation regarding the various backgrounds and cultures that many UW students come from.
Last spring, Cecilia Mao, Fangdi Pan and Muge Niu met at a conference hosted by the Wisconsin China Initiative. The three were disappointed in the lack of attendance by undergraduate students at the conference, Mao said.
“More than 1,000 Chinese students go here, making it the largest international student body on campus,” Mao said. “We wanted to ask why there hasn’t been more interest and conversation.”
In an effort to prompt the conversation, Mao, Pan and Niu created “Channel C,” a YouTube talk show designed to facilitate conversation between international and domestic students.
The YouTube channel features international students trying to integrate themselves into campus life and tries to clarify for domestic students what an international student is going through, Mao said.
The ‘C’ does not stand for anything in particular, Pan said, but could mean communication, China, conversation or anything else relevant.
One of the goals for Channel C is to relate to all students, foreign and domestic, Mao said. The show also tries to emphasize why international students choose to go to school in Madison, of all the places in the United States, she said.
It is difficult for international students to overcome the culture shock of America, and Channel C attempts to communicate this hardship to domestic students, Pan said.
“The eventual goal of the project is to have Channel C work as a reference for international students thinking of studying in America,” Pan said.
Channel C is important because it serves as a great learning experience for international and domestic students alike, Mao said. The channel highlights the courage of international students, as many make the decision to live in America for four years without prior international travel experience, she said.
The videos are proving to be relatively popular, Mao said. Channel C’s most popular video “Why Chinese Students Don’t Speak English” currently has over 20,000 views while most other videos average a couple hundred hits per video, she said.
“I’m very happy to see people watching and commenting,” Mao said. “We didn’t even intend for it to get this much attention. I’m glad that people are making conversation.”
The feedback has been mostly positive, though some racist comments are made on some of the videos, Mao said.
“I just find [the comments] funny,” Mao said. “Those comments aren’t that common but they prove that some people don’t understand.”
Comments do not just come from UW students, but from all over the world, as many people can relate to the topics, Pan said.
Channel C is looking to be more inclusive in the students featured in its videos, Pan said. The creators hope to begin incorporating more domestic students in its videos because they believe it will spark even more conversation, she said.
“An intermix in the videos would help people to intermix in real life,” Pan said.
