Zhang Jingru (22), a Chinese transfer student at University of Missouri. She transferred to Mizzou when she was junior after an exchange experience in New York. She majors in strategy communication and will be graduating in December 2016.

I met Jingru in Tokyo, where she had her first oversea internship there. She is a huge fan of Japanese culture.

Jingru had spent 2 months in Tokyo this summer, 2016. “Before I even came to Japan, I really had no idea that I would fall so deeply in love with Japanese culture”. Growing up in China, Jingru heard a lot of negative stories about Japan because of the war. Fed with propaganda and negative news stories on a daily basis about Japan, people in China usually neglect the sophisticated part of Japanese culture and good traits of Japanese people. But when the first time Jingru visited Japan, she didn’t fall asleep for 30 hours. “There is so much to see, so much to feel. I’m so excited.”

Traditional Japanese design is always her favorite. “Tokyo is the capital city of design.” Her house is decorated by Japanese art works, from calligraphy, cloth wrapper, and post cards. “I was very attracted by how well the traditions are preserved. And they are alive, not just preserved in museum, but alive in people’s life.”

Yanshu Wang (21) is one of the Chinese students I met in the Fundamentals of Photojournalism class. All these pictures are from my Classmate Assignment, and thanks to this assignment, I met a good friend and her friends, a bunch of great people.

The first impression of Yanshu for many people, is a strong image of independence. She looks super cool if you haven’t had the chance to talk to her, but once you knew her, She is the kind of person who is enthusiastic about life, said Li hanchen (21), Yanshu’s boyfriend.