Welcome!
Introduction
My name is Xu Chen, currently a master of journalism student in University of Florida,
with an undergraduate degree of English language and literature in Shanghai International Studies University.
Motto
"Comment is free, but facts are sacred," said CP Scott in his "A Hundred Years"(1921).It had endured as the ultimate value announcement for a free press, and had become my motto ever since the first time I read about it.
How it started
I started my goal to be a journalist years ago. In 2006, I went to Britain for exchanging study. It was a merely three weeks' period, but rather life-changing. At park-side international language school, I learned about things I never would knew had I not been abroad: different cultures and ideology, English manner, social life, and most importantly, the sealed history that had been censored back China.
At school, we sometimes talked about the Culture Revolution and other unspeakable issues in China. It was the weirdest feeling ever: those are part of China's history, but I did not have a even smattering of knowledge about them. Thereafter I became eager to learn about the truth, the reported, and the hidden ones. This was how it happened, that I started to think about to be a journalist who reveals truth for the public.
Grip the Chances
The resolution was not so easy to fulfill though. In 2007 I got the chance to be directly admitted by Shanghai International Studies University, major in English language and literature. "Why not," I said to myself. English is the perfect tool, it is a worldly used language. Enhancing my English ability can set a stepping-stone for my future pursuit of Journalism study, for China is still not that open minded to free press.
United States might be the best choice to study journalism, it has a well-developed news system, it is an advocacy of free speech and let presses compete with each other. And here I am, at University of Florida, one of the top universities in the U.S., studying the top-ranked major of journalism.