German | Chinese
In the context of the University of Oxford, we hope our names; faces and stories will emphasise that there is a place for everyone at Oxford. According to last year’s admissions data, 700 Oxford undergraduates identify as mixed. In 2016, BAME students accounted for 15.9% of the undergraduate intake. Oxford is diversifying, albeit slowly. We hope to empower mixed heritage students at Oxford and foster a community where they can safely share their own opinions, experiences and stories.
My Mum is from China. My Dad is from the North of Germany. I grew up on German and Mandarin, so it seemed normal to me to have ‘some China and some Germany’ in me. I probably only understood those two don’t just naturally come together once I got into kindergarten, because the other kids would call me Chinese. It’s a big advantage that both of them are able to speak the other’s mother tongue as well, so nobody ever doesn’t know what’s being talked about at the dinner table. I didn’t have much of an idea about what Oxford was like before applying. Naively, I just thought it was a really good university. Of course, I knew how access to good education related to inequality, but I didn’t really do my research. Neither does the German public: The standard perception of Oxford is one-sidedly positive and admiring. Unsurprisingly, I was a bit shocked to see the class divisions and controversies involving racial/cultural insensitivity. I have not found any formal rules that are exclusionary. It is rather informal conventions and behaviour that either has put me off or that I could imagine deters people. Although this paragraph focuses on the downsides of Oxford, I cannot stress enough how many great friends I’ve found here and how much I have profited intellectually from this university so far. I realise more now that my half Chinese part is not just some special thing that I own and that sets me apart. It’s something that people other than me have a much better understanding of and that has been part of their community a lot more than for me. Most Asian events at Oxford have a focus on the original countries, and that’s totally fine for bonding. Similarly, in political discourse about minorities, both mixed-race people of all colours and Chinese people are not really being talked about specifically. That is also fine with me, as public attention cannot be centred on all issues at once, and other groups should be prioritised in the current climate.
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