Living Books
Youzhou Zhou
Know yourself and listen to your heart
Lecturer, Department of Pure Mathematics
I am nobody who barely agrees with common sense. Even so, my attitude toward each warm word, either from books or bequeathed by my senior friends and peer fellows, is sincere and consistent. I think someone like me can easily circumvent involution, because I can hardly agree with ritual belief, only hoping to understand what interest me. Just as a poem once put it
“keen to read,
reluctantly seek profound comprehension,
once enlightening idea shines upon,
the universe talks to me!”
Qinlin Wang
The girl who keeps chasing
Senior in 2020, major in civil engineering/One year extension for Imperial College of environmental engineering in 2021
National scholarship winner / two-year academic scholarship winner / honorary student of West Jiaotong University of Liverpool / founder of Suzhou MID Tourism Culture Co., Ltd. / manager of knowknow platform
Before going to college, she practiced sports, appeared on TV, and became an art student... She did a lot of cool things in her eyes, just to be different from others. But what do you really want to do? She didn't know.
After going to university, she began to learn to concentrate on one thing. She was committed to making contributions to the field of environment and transportation. This process is very difficult, especially for a college entrance examination score in entering XJTLU, only three points higher than the admission line of Qinlin. During her study in XJTLU, she began to make plans from her freshman year and studied seriously.
Finally, she got the postgraduate admission letters from Imperial College of technology and University College London.
When she stopped pursuing the superficial "cool", she found what she wanted to do most in XJTLU and became a different person in other people's eyes.
Mengyao Zheng
Curious about the world, honest with myself
Year 4 Financial Mathematics
2020 National Scholarship/Havard University, Yale University, UChicago, UCB, Columbia Offer holder/IEEE IoTJ publication/ACM publication/Academic Excellence Scholarship for 3 years/Research Assistant at CNCL, Nanyang Technological University
From the worst in mathematics in Gaokao to the top 1% in mathematics, why did I like mathematics again?
From the top 1% in Accounting to the top 1% in Financial Mathematics, to the publication of SCI Journal in machine learning, and to the admission to Harvard in biostatistics, I tried my best in every attempt, but I didn't get stuck in sunk costs. I don't regret the ups and downs of four years.
From ACCA to GRE, from financial audit to python CNN, how to overcome anxiety and defeat confusion, regain the passion for life and curiosity about the world?
Do not close yourself, stay curious, and actively seek your own sense of mission and eternity.
Come and listen to the story of Mengyao.
Qinyu Ni
Self-yoke and liberation, the courage to pursue self-worth
Year 4 Bioinformatics
Rock’n’roll lover/Academic Excellence & Achievement Award/volunteer of Animal Protection/2018 IGEM member/Offered by Carnegie Mellon University Master/Bakery Scout.
If my four years of university were a process of confronting with myself, then the gap year after graduation gave me a buffer period for reconciliation with myself. Broadly speaking, I have done everything that please myself but those related with my undergraduate and graduate majors: Internship in a bakery, doing cultural and creative design, taking financial-related certificates, try to learn CG, and Japanese. Under the push without external goals, it is more about listening and recording the inner self. I want to know more things that can make me recognize myself and be happy. It will be regrettable to make any choice. Sometimes gain is to lose. Occasionally, it is better to abandon secular and utilitarian ideas and taste the clarity of romanticism. Since happiness is long-standing in no case, if you are positive and full of spirit in exploring yourself, it is worthwhile to let it be one more second. I always believe that the best joy comes from ourselves.
Chongjie Xu
"Monsters in Suzhou" - a fantastic journey, starting from the XJTLU
Module leader of CCT008, Chinese Culture Teaching Center
In the beginning, there were no living beings on the earth. The fall of an alien meteorite brought the seeds of life, and the place of the falling star is now the location of Xi’an Jiaotong – Liverpool University.
Meteorite contains a huge amount of life energy. After falling, the biggest piece of life energy becomes magic dragon.
The rest of the energy is fragmented into the first generation of gods, the ancient gods.
Life energy has the impulse to devour each other, especially the magic dragon, which wants to devour other gods.
The ancient gods united to kill the magic dragon. However, the magic dragon is the crystallization of life, and cannot be completely destroyed, and some gods also want to devour the magic dragon. Finally, all parties compromise and decide to suppress the magic dragon.
The dormant gods wait quietly, waiting to restore their former glory.
The day when the gods return is the time when all living beings wither.
……
In order to cover up the truth, as a result of the compromise between the eastern and Western gods, a new university was born.
September 1, 2021 is an ordinary day.
A young man named * * walked into Xi’an Jiaotong - Liverpool University.
The history of the world has quietly opened a new page. Many years later, the surviving humans recalled that moment and called it the day of the devil's awakening.
There are thousands of worlds in my heart. When I am free, I will talk to you one by one.
News
真人图书馆|活动回顾
5月25日在中心楼123W, 令人期待已久的真人图书馆开馆喽!
On May 25th, Living Library was held at 123W, Center Building.
本次真人图书馆共邀请了五位嘉宾，分别是文思敏捷的徐崇杰老师，平易近人的周友洲老师，申请到哈佛offer的郑梦瑶，面包探店选手倪沁宇和爱折腾小姐王沁琳。他们在这里不仅为我们讲故事，还与我们分享他们的人生经历，让我们更加具有正能量，更加具有追寻星辰大海的勇气！
This time we invited five guests, namely, Dr. Chongjie Xu, Dr. Youzhou Zhou, Mengyao Zheng, Qinyu Ni and Qinlin Wang. They told us their stories, sharing their life experiences with us, so that we could have more positive energy and more courage to pursue our dreams!
“地球本没有生灵，一颗外来陨石的坠落带来了生命的种子，而坠星之地便是现在西交利物浦大学所在地。”徐崇杰老师为同学们带来的《姑苏有妖》，是一段奇幻的旅程。他将图书馆比喻成魔方，给在黑夜中的爆肝复习的西浦人满满的能量感。徐老师还将北校区比喻为阴阳八卦，南校区比喻为六芒星。听完徐老师的讲述，同学们是不是觉得西浦很诡异呀！
"The earth had no living creatures. The fall of a foreign meteorite brought the seeds of life, and the place where the star fell is now the location of Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University." Chongjie Xu told us a story called Monsters in Suzhou - a fantastic journey. He likened the library to a Rubik's Cube, giving energy to the XJTLUers who were reviewing in the dark night. Xu also compared the North Campus to the Eight Diagrams, and the South Campus to a Hexagram. After listening to his story, XJTLU did look weird!
面对内卷，你是否感到焦虑呢？周友洲讲师用自身的经历总结出避免内卷的方法。方法就是三省吾身和向内安其心，然后上下求索。“人生旅途，路漫漫其修远兮，为防迷路，君子需吾日三省吾身。”每当我们感到焦虑时，可以问自己：我是谁？我在哪？我要干什么？然后，整理行装，上下求索。此外，老师还用自身学习英语的经验建议我们应该提前发现自己的优势、发展自己的优势。
Did you feel anxious facing involution? Dr. Youzhou Zhou summed up ways to avoid involution through his own experience. The method was to look inward at yourself and pursue your own dream. "Life is a long journey. In order to prevent getting lost, a gentleman always needs to do self-examination." Whenever we feel anxious, we can ask ourselves: Who am I? where am I? What am I doing? Then, continue our journey. In addition, Zhou also took his own experience in learning English as an example, and suggested that we should discover and develop our own advantages.
如果死后，能有一次去200年以后的世界的机会，你会选择去吗？郑梦瑶刚看到这个问题时，直接回答不会。她学姐解释说因为那时的她不具有对一项事业的终极热忱。这种热忱会给人带来一种强大的使命感，价值感和目标感。这种使命感会让我们产生自己有价值的笃信，用这样的笃信在日复一日与时间的战役中，对抗疲惫与焦虑。那么如何找到使命感呢？她建议我们先对世界有基础性的了解，再对世界产生好奇。并且在这过程中，坦诚对自己。
If you had a chance to travel to the world 200 years from now, would you choose to go? When Mengyao Zhen first saw this question, she answered no directly. She explained that because she did not have the ultimate enthusiasm for a career at that time. This kind of enthusiasm gives people a strong sense of mission, value and purpose. This sense of mission allows us to generate our own worthy convictions, and use this conviction to fight fatigue and anxiety in the battle against time. So how to find a sense of mission? She suggested that we should first have a basic understanding of the world, become curious about the world, and be honest with ourselves.
什么是少年感？倪沁宇告诉我们少年感就是不害怕做出改变的勇气，自我认可不活在其他人期待中的勇气和为自己的生活方式和自由负责的勇气。因为我们缺乏对自己人生负责的勇气，总是活在别人的期待中，所以我们感到不快乐。她用去面包店学习的经历告诉我们在这个年龄段试错的成本是相对低的，我们应该做我们自己，拥有少年感，追逐自己梦想！
What is the sense of youth? Qinyu Ni told us that the sense of youth was the courage to make changes, to self-recognize, and to take responsibility for their own lifestyle and freedom. Because we lacked the courage to be responsible for our own lives and always lived in the expectations of others, we felt unhappy. She used her internship experience at a bakery to tell us that the cost of trial and error at this age was relatively low. We should be ourselves, have a sense of youth, and chase our dreams!
“钱没少挣，习没少学！”这是不被定义的爱折腾小姐王沁琳的自我介绍。她不仅在大学期间创业，还被帝国理工大学录取。“你站在多高的台阶，你就能看到多远的路。”她分别从创业和学习两方面，告诉我们人生充满无限可能！“世上无难事，只怕有心人。”
"Money was earned. Work was done!" This is the self-introduction of Qinlin Wang, the girl who keeps chasing. She not only started a business during college, but also gained admission to Imperial College London. "How high you stand, How far you can see." She told us that life is full of infinite possibilities from the perspectives of entrepreneurship and learning. "Nothing is unachievable."
听完五位嘉宾的分享，我们受益匪浅，同时也了解到每一位成功者背后的艰辛。但是，既然选择了远方，便只顾风雨兼程！世界那么大，还有好多有趣的人和事在等着我们呢！为了我们的梦想，冲鸭！
After listening to the sharing of the five guests, we have benefited a lot. We also learned about the hardships behind each success. However, since we have chosen to go, we have to face the difficulties! There is a whole big and interesting world waiting for us! Go for our dreams!