USSU Chinese Society

Annual Report2018-19

萨里大学中国学联

USSU Chinese Society

Contents Introduction

Committee

Members

Events

Support

Volunteering Project

#StudyinginSurrey Project

Outreach

Finance

Challenges & Recommendations

Partners & Sponsors

4

5

9

11

29

31

33

36

37

40

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In early 2018, we became a registered

society of the University of Surrey

Students' Union. Also, we are externally

affiliated to the Chinese Students and

Scholars Association (CSSA) of the UK.

We persist our nature - a non-political,

non-religious, non-profit voluntary

group.

In this academic year, we focused on

enriching the daily life of Chinese

students studying at the University of

Surrey and delivered transformational

positive impacts on local community.

We held regular internal meetings

biweekly during term time, and we

actively communicated with the

University, Students’ Union and other

organisations as well as worked closely

with the International Student

Recruitment Office, Employability and

Career Centre and Widening

Participation and Outreach Department.

We are committed to provide timely and

accurate information and practical

services to Chinese students.

Meanwhile, we maintain good

relationships with Chinese companies

and provide recruitment information

from Chinese universities and

enterprises.

All what we aim to achieve is to build an

international and future-oriented

platform for Surrey's students and are

adhering to the spirit of openness,

tolerance and enthusiasm.

2018-2019 has been a busy year for the USSU Chinese Society. We have had an almost 150 per cent increase in the number of activities organised and have started 2 brand new projects.

Introduction3 4

Committee Structure

We have identified an efficient team structure and an effective team management for better dealing with heavy workload.

President Vice President

Treasurer

Activity Manager

Liaison Manager

Media Manager

Support Manager

Deputy Manager

Deputy Manager

Deputy Manager

Activity Sub-Committee

Liaison Sub-Committee

Media Sub-Committee

Volunteer Team Leader

Support Sub-Committee

According to area of functions, the committee is divided into 4 Departments and a Team Leader of volunteering projects.

The Department of Activity is responsible for making sure events are smoothly run and for collaborating events with other societies and organisations.

The Department of Media is responsible for running our official society media accounts on Weibo, WeChat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Bilibili and YouTube, for ensuring them have the most updated and useful information students would need, for compiling and updating the Chinese version freshers’ guidebook and for organising the #StudyinginSurrey project.

The Department of Liaison is responsible for maintaining relationships with sponsors and societies at the University of Surrey.

The Department of Support is responsible for financial transparency by publishing financial statements on WeChat quarterly and for managing the freshers’ groups on WeChat.

The Volunteer Team is responsible for providing volunteer opportunities for team members and for organising events including culture and language tasting sessions.

5 6

Chairperson: Yan Zhu

Vice Chairperson : Xiaofu Li

Treasurer: Anyang Ma

Department of Activity:Manager: Phoebe Sek

Event Organiser: Phoebe Sek

Event Assistant: Changsheng Wang,

Jiayi He, He Huang, Qingwei Chen,

Yanhong Liu, Jiayan Lu, Yutong Zheng,

Jinru Wu, Wanting Ye, Jingyi Xu,

Yuqing Dai

Department of Media:Deputy Manager: Keming Su

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Weibo Admin: Yuhuan Qian

WeChat Admin: Haiying Wu

Designer: SANA Hui

Assistant: Xiaoling Fan, Yifei Jin

Webmaster Chinese: Yiyi Yang

Webmaster SU Activity Page: Hui

Wang

Department of Liaison:Manager: Xiangyi Kong

Activity Assistant: Simon, Freya

Sponsor Program Assistant: Stella

Assistant: Teddy

Photographer: Carol

Assistant: Karen

Department of Support:Manager: Anyang Ma

HR: Yuqi Zhan

Newsletter Editor: Long Meng

Volunteer Team:Team Leader: Kary Ho

Committee Members

Key position changes: 17.5.2018 The change of committee 20.11.2018 Vice Chairperson: Xiaofu Li26.2.2019 Treasurer: Anyang Ma

7 8

Due to the popular usage of WeChat app among Chinese students, a great number of society members joined the Chinese Society through our official WeChat group chats, which suggests the actual number of society members goes beyond the figure showed on the Students’Union website.

Over 200 members are actively participating in our activities, whilst 85 of them have registered on the USSU website with free membership.

We offered our members opportunities to meet up with University professors and lecturers via the Chinese New Year Lunch.

Closely working with our sponsorsand other companies, we organised career training sessions, had guest speakers from Career Frog and had 58 attendees. We organised the Huawei ITC competition Roadshow at Surrey and offered our members the opportunity to attend the Awarding Ceremony to broaden their network with managers from Huawei and industry experts.

Members

We aim to attract both local and international students and to introduce Chinese culture to them while maintaining connection and participation from Chinese students. We were thrilled that there were same number of international students anticipated the Chinese New Year Fair as Chinese students, proving that we are achieving our goals in terms ofpromoting Chinese culture.

9 10

EventsWe have organised a variety of events covering sports, performances, literature and arts to enrich our daily life at the University.

Society EventsEvents held by our Society.Aiming at enriching daily life, promoting Chinese culture and developingpersonal skills.

CollaborationEvents collaboratively held with societies at the University and other external organisations.

Union EventsEvents held by the Students’ Union which we actively participated.

Charity EventsEvents held aiming at raising awareness or charitable fund.

11 12

Society Events

PSE12 Campus Tour

This free campus tour was specifically organised for students who just arrived at the University for the PSE 12 course (Pre-sessional English Language 12 weeks). The tour detailly described and explained about

each building and section of the university, helped freshers get familiar with the campus and adapt to the new life and study environment as soon as possible.

Meet & Greet

The Meet & Greet at the beginning of Semester 1 was presented with free pizza and drinks. We invited students to enjoy the treat and introduced in detail how our society functions and some upcoming events. Games and a lucky draw were also arranged with the help from our sponsors

as a bonus treat. We did our best to answer all the questions raised and to make sure the students were able to enjoy facilities and events that we prepared for them.

13 14

Keep Running

In order to get the students further familiar

with the campus layout and surroundings,

an event named ‘Keep Running’ was

organised. Another objective of the event

was to act as a team building activity.

Students were split into pairs as teams and

were asked to take selfies at assigned points.

The first team finished won the game. It was

absolutely incredible that the winner team

completed all tasks within just half an hour.

Surrey Idol

Surrey Idol is an event that the Chinese

Society held annually. This year we

auditioned the best singers, while 8

participants entered the Grand Final. It

was a very intense competition for the

competitors yet a delightful evening for the

audiences. Senyu Qiu, won the

competition with the song ‘The Brightest

Star in the Night Sky’. His vocal

techniques has proved that he was well

deserved for the first place.

15 16

Revision Package

What can be a better way than treating our students with sweets and snacks during the intense exam period? The Chinese Society had prepared a wide range of snacks and drinks for all students for FREE during the three weeks’ exam period. We wanted to keep students energised to face their upcoming exams and do their best that they would never

regret. Nearly 300 revision packages were distributed, and we hope students have received sufficient energy and power to concentrate on their exam revisions.

Chinese New Year Lunch with SCAN

It is a tradition to gather round family members and have a big feast at the Chinese New Year, wishing every member of the family a happy new year and all the best for the upcoming year. This time we collaborated with the SCAN to create a big

buffet and put together some great performances to celebrate the Chinese New Year. This event invited both students and academic staff, creating a good communication platform that rarely happened.

17 18

Union Events

Showcase & Freshers’ Fair & Refreshers’ Fair

During Freshers’ Week, The Chinese Society took part in the showcase at the Hari’s Bar, Rubix. The showcase’s goal was to display and to allow students experience Chinese culture, soothing homesick Chinese students, at the same time offering an opportunity for everyone to know more about China and wishing to provide everyone with fun at the start of semester. We were glad that some students made new friends by

participating the event, by discussing and by sharing their childhood while playing with toys. Traditional costumes from various dynasties were presented and were available for students to try on. Paper-cutting art and traditional masks were also some interesting things that a lot of students enjoyed.

One World Week Gala & Fair

The University of Surrey Students’ Union organised a ‘One World Week Gala’; we Chinese Society participated by a performance from our Dance Team. The gala included a variety of performances prepared by a large number of societies. The event aimed to create an atmosphere for cultural exchanges. We purchased a number of tickets to appreciate our

society members for their hard work over the past few months and they have thoroughly enjoyed all the acts. The effort and time that the Chinese Society Dance Team put into practising and achieving their best has been greatly recognised.

19 20

Collaboration

Pre-Departure Event in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou

In June 2018, a series of 3 departure events took place in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. It was the very first time that 10 universities’ Chinese societies from the CSSA (Chinese Students and Scholars Association) came together and organised joint university pre-departure events.The aim of this event was to provide advices that could help freshers from China to quickly get used to the studying and living

environment in the UK and to give them an tease of local culture and traditions. The event, in total, attracted an approximate of 1000 students. The events were also livestreamed for those who were unable to attend the event. General information and suggestions on studying, living and employability were provided as well as specific information about each university presented by the corresponding university’s

representatives. There was also a Q&A session for the students to ask about areas they concerned. The event also acted as a platform where students were able to make new friends before departure to the UK and to get to know the sponsors and the services they provided.

21 22

Asian Night

Asian Night 2018 was one of the first events in the new academic year that the Chinese Society collaborated with some other University of Surrey Students’ Union societies. We worked with ABACUS, KISS, Filipino Society and Nepalese Society to create this amazing evening, where all were welcome to

join regardless of their origin. It was our fifth time helping with organising and promoting this type of event. We wanted to help the students enjoy themselves and meet new friends.

British Champion 2018

The British Champion 2018 was an inter-society singing competition held by the Bath CSSA. Around 400 audiences attended with over 1300 people viewed the livestream. A total of 12 Chinese Societies participated in

the contest, including the USSU Chinese Society. Two of our best singers, Yixuan Qian and Xueyang Li, took part in the competition; both of them received great praises.

23 24

Charity Events

Photo Planet

The event was a collaboration with the SII DUFE Students’ Union, aiming to raise awareness about saving the planet and environment. The event as a fund-raising photo exhibition raised a total of £377.75 for the World Wildlife Fund

(WWF). It was a great success working with the SII DUFE Students’ Union and we achieved a great result. We were pleased that we were able to contribute and help to save our planet.

25 26

Chinese New Year Gala

Chinese New Year is the biggest festival in

China and Chinese people celebrate it in a

lot of traditions. One of these is to watch the

Chinese New Year Gala. It is the most

significant event that the Chinese Society

organises each year. This year, we have

invited a number of distinguished guests,

including our Vice-Chancellor. It was such a

pleasure to have them with us enjoying the

amazing evening.

We had a great variety of acts - singing,

dancing, magic shows, comedies etc. All

tickets were sold out way before the event

and the fully-filled theatre created an

especially heart-warming atmosphere; just

like a big family celebrating the Chinese New

Year.

The gala was a non-profit event; all the

income has been donated to the Shooting

Star Chase Charity.

27 28

Support

Starting from 2016, we now have 5 WeChat groups with around 500 students each.

Supported by staffs from the International Office, the team formed by alumni and current

committee members volunteer to answer students’ questions 24/7 even during Christmas

and Chinese New Year holidays. We assure that the prospect students can find someone to

discuss their enquiries and difficulties on WeChat when needed.

The ‘Freshers Guide’ is a detailed guidance written by the Chinese Society committee,

covering introduction of the University and Guildford surroundings, luggage preparation,

transportations to the University from the airport , housing, registrations, clothing, eating,

entertainment, things regarding to study, finance, visa and the list goes on.

‘18 Freshers Guide’ has online and offline versions – both are free. Online version has been

published on WeChat with over 600 downloads. 500 paper version copies distributed to

students during the Pre-Departure Events in China and the Freshers’ Fair.

29 30

Volunteering Project

To play a part in the rich life of Guildford area, the Chinese Society has work hard to establish mutual beneficial connect with the local community and support our neighborhood. In 2018, we established a Volunteer Team, aiming to promote a wide range of local volunteer services while bringing our society members together. The Team consists of 112 members, whom have devoted more than 590 hours of their leisure time (as listed on Surrey Volunteering website) to actively involve in voluntary activities, ranging from cultural sessions, event helpers to environmental workshops.

“The original idea about establishing this project is to help Chinese students integrate with the community, in the meantime, to do what we can do to help our university and community. The team became bigger and stronger day by day which is far beyond my imagination.”

---------- Yan Zhu (President 18/19)

Our volunteer team has been actively involved in charity events throughout this year. In October, we collaborated with Surrey UNICEF and supported the Halloween event to fundraise for malnourished children in developing countries. Five of our members volunteered an evening to bake and decorated trays of festive cupcakes for the bake sale.

The Operational Christmas Child event in November had a goal to share the happiness of Christmas. During the project, we fundraised £70.32 by selling Christmas cards outside the library foyer and at the Surrey Idol competition. With the input from our team and Surrey HKPASS society, donated items were first collected and wrapped as Christmas gifts during a workshop. The fundraised amount was donated to Samaritan Purse’s to support their projects in developing countries while the shoebox gifts were sent to children in need in Bulgaria.

In February, our volunteer team participated in the local charity run organised by the Students’ Union and Kelly’s Storage. 15 of us did the 5K and 10K run while the other 14 members volunteered as Marshals to cheer for the participants during the race. We were all delighted to spend our Saturday morning being a part of such a meaningful event with locals and friends while fundraising on behalf of the charity Shooting Star Chase.

We hosted a wide range of events to encourage our society members to participate as event helpers, including Care Package for Revision in January for the examinations, Chinese New Year Gala, One World Week Gala and Chinese New Year Lunch. Through these activities, we havemade a great step forward to establish better connections with foreign students and local charity organisations such as Shooting Star Chase, Kelly’s Storage and Students’ Union.

Nevertheless, we demonstrated our concerns about the environmental change and voiced out the importance of sustainable development among our peers. We organised 2-hour craft workshops regularly and discussed popularenvironmental topics such as renewable energy source, sustainable cities and paper making process. Then we utilised recycled materials collected from daily life, such as cardboards and plastics to create creative artworks.

Moreover, we took part in the sustainable art workshop during the climate week to redecorate glass bottles and hosted an Earth Hour event which comprised of an escape room game in the library and stargazing section at the lakeside as a collective action to reduce energy use and as a contribution to the Earth Hour campaign. The money generated from the Earth Hour event (£20) was donated to support the WWF wildlife and forest conservation projects.

31 32

#StudyinginSurrey Project

The “#StudyinginSurrey” project aimed at

giving the Chinese who are coming to Surrey

an overview about their study life. It used to

be text-based interviews focused on students’

experiences. This year, we changed to making

video interviews and included more

professors’ interviews as well as students’ and

PhDs’.

With the support from our professors and

Chinese students, the content of the School of

Hospitality and Tourism Management and

the Department of Electronic Electrical

Engineering have been filmed and received

very good feedback from 19 freshers.

We are looking forward to covering more

schools and areas in the future.

What we are doing is to support Chinese students no matter you arealready in Surrey or are planning to come to Surrey.

“The work you spend time and effort in is very meaningful!”-------- Prof. Gang Li

(Professor of Tourism Economics, Director of International Relations)

“Thank you so much! The videos are really helpful! The professors gave clear information and students got me to imagine my future university life”

-------- a 19 Fresher

*Information translated from Mandurian.

33 34

We partnered with the University

Widening Participation and Outreach

team to introduce Chinese culture and

language to primary and secondary

school students. We hope to bring the

concept of cultural diversity to early

stage of education, helping younger

students learn to appreciate people

from different ethnic backgrounds.

Over twenty volunteers were trained in

the workshop and helped out in Year 7

Language Day and Year 8 Sports and

Society Day events. They guided

students throughout fun group

activities, such as chopstick challenge

and paper cutting. We received positive

feedbacks from students and volunteers

that they gained new knowledge about

the Chinese zodiac and Chinese New

Year traditions throughout the sessions.

Moreover, we hosted a Chinese New

Year Celebration event at Rubix and

volunteers helped out the stands for

students to experience interesting

Chinese games, calligraphy writing and

trying-on traditional costumes for

photo shooting.

Furthermore, we took part in the

February GGA language café with

other cultural societies. Foreign

students came over and tried out

dumplings and local dishes that we

prepared. The language café provided

an effective platform for students who

are interested in Chinese culture to

practice oral conversations in groups

and to exchange cultural ideas.

We also look for new opportunities to

collaborate with other societies at the

University. As part of our wider support

for our neighbours in the Park Barn

community, we work closely with

Surrey Enactus and Surrey Garden

Society to involve in the activities at the

Community Centre. We spent a March

afternoon for a fun Sunday roast event

with the Surrey Enactus Climb

Volunteer team. We interacted closely

with local elderly people through pub

quiz with live music performance to

combat their home loneliness. On the

other hand, we are planning to help the

Garden Society in transforming the

Park Barn centre to a community

garden in spring time. Therefore, our

members were keen on joining the

regular session lead by Garden Society

to get some experience hands-on

gardening work in the cottage garden

on campus. Through the workshops,

we learnt how to weed, pave and

landscape the garden, as well as planted

the seeds of camellia, herbs in pots and

potatoes in the ground.

Outreach

“We believe by bring the outside world in and reaching out, we can contribute beyond as a cultural society and constantly strive to expand our volunteer opportunities to meet our goal in bringing positive impact to the local community.”

----------- Kary Ho (Volunteer Team Leader)

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Finance

£8,655.11

£1,248.56

£430.81

£77.69

£73.98

£- £1,000.00 £2,000.00 £3,000.00 £4,000.00 £5,000.00 £6,000.00 £7,000.00 £8,000.00 £9,000.00 £10,000.00

Event Expense

Committee Event Expense

Media Expense

Overheads

StudyinginSurrey Project

Paid out

£3,126.84

£4,790.00

£3,200.00

£2,390.93

1

£- £1,000.00 £2,000.00 £3,000.00 £4,000.00 £5,000.00 £6,000.00

Balance

Sponsor Fee

Donation

Event income

Paid in

In this academic year, we actively communicated with alumni, companies and sponsors. With the support of our partners, we achieved the total amount of £10515.93 of sponsorship and donation.

Event-related expenses take the largest part in expenditure. We had held serval charity events and had fundraised £1245.18 to charities.

Balance23%

Sponsor Fee35%

Donation23%

Event income

18%

Products Sale1%

Event Expense83%

Overheads1%

Committee Event Expense

12%

Media Expense4%

£140.00

£377.75

£70.00

£657.43

£- £100.00 £200.00 £300.00 £400.00 £500.00 £600.00 £700.00

Kelly's Guildford 10k

Photo Plante

Christmas Card Sale

Chinese New Year Gala

Fundraising

37 38

Challenges & Recommendations

Chinese society has undergone a tremendous development in the past year. Because of the plan and work going on are not only in the society but more on outreaching and collaborating, challenges that we are facing is different than before.

We need a more effective and collaboratecommittee then last year in the future. For the plans under discussion with external organisations, we need to set up some committee positions dealing with those projects specifically.

Also, for our finance, we need a continuouspartnership maintained with our partners and sponsors. To develop more partnerships isimportant as well.

The Department of Activity has organised a wide range of events about promoting the Chinese culture in the past. It might be difficult for the future committee members to come up with new event ideas on how to achieve this objective.

So far, we have identified the trend that people tend to attend events that provide free food and drinks, which the Department of Activity should put in consideration.

Another major challenge is teamwork. It is a fundamental section in event planning and management. Each member of the team will be occupied with a lot of academic work,

which is understandable. However, it might lead to situations that targets and plans for events are not achieved as supposed to. The Department of Activity should work closely together with efficient communications in order to create the best quality outcome.

There are challenges encountered while organising Chinese culture-related activities in the local community. As we partnered with the University Widening Participation & Outreach team, King’s College and Park Barn Community, it required a long processing time, including face-to-face discussion, paper work submission and review. This ensures that the teaching material, venues, session schedules, number of student and volunteers participated are properly arranged and meet the objectives of the events organised by different parties. Since the participants are targeted assecondary school students, it requires effort to come up with interactive activities and attractive visual contents within limited teaching time frame to keep their interest and expand their cultural knowledge in learning a new language.

39 40

Partners & Sponsors

Bubble CiTea

Bamboo Garden

Beijing Restaurant

Career Frog LTD

China Mobile Group

Dragonsea LTD

Enlightener Edu

Leiping LTD

Spaceman Storage

TITICACA travel

UK Visa & International Education Centre

UKCN Shop

Wangpingtravel

The Students’ Union, University of Surrey

Surrey-China Academics Network (SCAN)

Employability and Career Centre

Widening Participation and Outreach Office

International Student Recruitment Office

Garden Society, University of Surrey

Korean International Students Society, University of Surrey

ABACUS, University of Surrey

Enactus Surrey

CSSA UK

CSSA Bath

CSSA Bournemouth

CSSA Bristol

CSSA Cardiff

CSSA Kent

CSSA Portsmouth

CSSA Reading

CSSA Southampton

CSSA Swansea

Partners

Sponsors

We are hugely grateful to our partners and sponsors, giving us opportunities to achieve so much in reaching our goals and objectives.

41 42

Chinese SocietyStudents’ Union,

Union House, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey,

GU2 7XH, UK

https://activity.ussu.co.uk/chinesewww.cssasurrey.org.uk

WeChat：

Weibo:萨里大学CSSAFacebook: USSUChineseSocInstagram: ussuchinesesocTwitter: USSUChineseSoc

Bilibili:萨里学联YouTube: USSU Chinese Society

Contact us: ussu.chinese@surrey.ac.uk

@USSU Chinese Society CommitteeApril, 2019