Cultural Buddy System Connects Students in Taiwan

Located 100 miles from China’s coast, Taiwan has a history that is multilayered. With a wave of Chinese migration in the 1600s, a 50-year Japanese colonial period, and migration from China in the 1940s, Taiwan is home to many customs from all over China. The island is also home to 16 Austronesian indigenous groups, each with their own language and cultural practices. In other words, the island is a lively mix of foods, languages, and customs.

Taiwan is also a center for biotech, clean energy, ecotourism, and more. The combination makes it ideal for a WPI project center, where students tackle Interactive Qualifying Projects connecting society and technology. And with Mandarin Chinese the official language, Taiwan serves students studying Chinese for their Humanities and Arts Requirement and the increasing number of Chinese Studies minors.

When Wen-Hua Du and Jennifer Rudolph (both of the Department of Humanities and Arts) established a project center there in 2019, locating it primarily in Taipei, they wanted to offer great projects and great cultural experiences, whether or not students studied Chinese. They developed a cultural buddy program in partnership with Soochow University; each WPI student is paired with a Soochow student based on mutual interests. With contact between the buddies beginning the term before travel, students already have a cultural exchange partner and potential friend upon arrival.

Much to Du and Rudolph’s delight, the system works. “Students told me they were overwhelmed by the friendly environment,” says Du, who hails from Taiwan. “People in Taiwan are very willing to help. They’re always willing to go the extra mile.”

Going the extra mile is literally what happened when computer science major and cycling enthusiast Tim Stecko ’24 met Simon, his Soochow cultural buddy.

“Simon introduced me to his friends on a cycling team, and we went on a nighttime bike ride to the top of a nearby mountain and looked over the skyline,” says Stecko. Laughing, he adds, “They all had fancy racing bikes, and I had one of the city rental bikes, like the Bluebikes you see in Boston.”

Together Stecko and Simon explored Taipei’s vibrant night markets and street food vendors. They sometimes ate lunch with Simon’s friends.

The prospect of having a rich cultural experience was a priority for Stecko when considering where to do his IQP. Because he’d traveled to China during high school and minored in Chinese Studies at WPI, he was eager to go somewhere he could practice his Mandarin and participate in life outside the project center.

Starting in spring 2025, WPI students will also have the opportunity to participate in an HUA project center in Taiwan. It’s the only one of the five off-campus HUA centers offering back-to-back IQP and HUA experiences in the same location, providing students with a longer in-country experience.

In 2024, Rudolph advised a team of Soochow students and their faculty advisor who spent the month of July at WPI interviewing faculty, staff, and students to learn about the Great Problems Seminar. “It was a mini IQP,” she says, “and the first time the Soochow students had experienced project-based learning.”

A few WPI students who spent D-Term 2024 or D-Term 2023 in Taiwan connected with the visiting Soochow students to serve as cultural buddies. And when the Soochow students presented their findings, WPI students brought gifts and cheered them on.

“Even though this might be a very small thing, it’s very Taiwanese,” says Du. Gift giving is a part of the culture. WPI’s students reciprocating the custom showed they had developed cultural awareness.

Stecko knows that first-hand. He was one of the WPI students that the Soochow team interviewed. In appreciation, the team gave him a small stuffed Soochow University bear, which he now keeps next to his desk. He reflects, “My experience in Taiwan taught me the benefit of being receptive and staying open to embracing new cultures, ideas, and perspectives. There’s such a wide range of what people are going through at any given moment. And knowing that, it’s easier to connect with people.”