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Hi everyone, and welcome back to your favorite segment Global Village. 欢迎回来你们最喜欢的板块【小酒馆·大世界】.
Actually today in our studio welcome back an old friend, some of you probably remember we had this philosophy segment called Let's Philosophize?
可能还有一些小伙伴记得原来你们很喜欢的一个板块叫做【知乎哲也】，是讲哲学问题的, 当时就有很多人喜欢这个板块的嘉宾主播TJ, so TJ, welcome back.
Hi, Lulu. I'm very glad to be back with you after a long hiatus.
I mean you have been really busy, right?
I thought the reason why I invited TJ to this segment rather than Let's Philosophize is because he has some interesting life updates to share. Like before in this segment earlier this year, if some of you still remember, we talked to Brad about his move to Japan. And TJ, you were in China in Beijing before COVID and during the COVID years you were back in the UK, and now you're in America.
Right, O’er land of the free and the home of the brave as they call it.
I'm just trying to get used to the culture shock of being in another place. I call it my third childhood. I had my first childhood in England, my second childhood in China. Now I'm learning everything again, right?
Completely different environment. I'm sure this is going to be a very interesting talk. But first things first, let's start with where exactly are you? I mean the United States is a big place. Where are you?
The area that I'm in is called the Midwest. The Midwest is the area that's seen as almost like the suburbs of America. It's lots of corn. People are supposed to be very friendly and they've been very nice to me so far. And it's somewhere that seemed to have a community and family values.
Which state are you in?
So the state that I'm in is called Indiana.
Indiana, okay. Are you in like a big city at least or are you like really in suburbs or even countryside of America?
So it's one of the strange things really that I'm in a town called Bloomington, which has under 100,000 people. So it is quite small.
It's like a village in China.
Right. You can bike around very easily. And the interesting thing about Bloomington to me is that its almost half of the entire population is to do with the university, right, its teachers, students or staff.
This is my next question and I'm sure a lot of you want to ask this question. Why are you in America?
It's a good question, right? Especially as I focus on early Chinese philosophy. So it's a strange place. It's essentially it's because my supervisor in China told me to come here. We have some of the best researchers that focus on early Taoist thought and early Confucian thought in all of the western world.
Let me get this straight. You now move from China or from the UK to America to study Chinese philosophy?
Yes. That is true. I know it seems very strange.
But the degree you're doing right now is your PhD right, your doctorate?
Right. I'm doing a PhD.
For those of you who don't really know TJ’s really interesting educational background, Let me fill you in.
TJ has got two master’s degrees, right? One from the UK one, from China, from Fudan university.
Yes, that's right.
Can you tell us a little bit about that like what degree did you like, what major did you do it in what field?
My undergraduate degree I did in Leeds in England that’s philosophy. Then I went to Beijing Normal university and did some language courses at Beijing Normal University.
After that, I did my teacher training. It was in Manchester but it's the Cambridge certification, right? That's not as impressive as it sounds for the listeners that are easily “fooled”. And then a master at Birmingham and then as another master of Fudan, now a PhD in America.
So you're just one of those like perpetual students.
Right, right. I think I do grow up slowly. It takes a long time for me to grow up.