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Professor Ji Li: In the Right Time, In the Right Way
Author:Xiaopei Dai  Date:2016-01-06  Clicks:

“How nice it is!” With a cute bob haircut, in gray woolen cloth coat, Professor Ji stood behind the window in her office. Without curtain, the winter sunshine came in and warms the room in freezing cold December. She held up her cellphone and took a picture of the deep blue sky. “Help yourself.” She said to me and began to boil a pot of tea.

Professor Ji Li, associate professor in Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University just came back from France. Not long ago she was invited to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, with several other scholars from Switzerland, Russia, America and so on. They worked in a group as observers at this meeting.

“It’s a luxury to do research in university and I enjoy it.”

Professor Ji speaks fluent English and is good at simultaneous interpretation. With proficiency in foreign language and great achievements in academic research, she is more internationally engaged  in the school and academic stage. She joined academic communications in England, Germany and some other places. In 2008, Professor Ji was selected as the U.S. state department senior visiting scholar. Also, she is in charge of several Projects of the National Social Science Foundation of China. She said these experiences act as  practice bases for her, broadening her horizon and improving her capacity in empirical research.

Although Professor Ji has gained fame as a communication scholar, she doesn’t see them as so-called achievements. “Actually, there is no specific goal in my academic career. When doing research, you are seldom even agitated by the earth-shaking reality. I read, observe and engage myself in some topics I’m interested in, which is a luxury to me and I enjoy it very much.”

Recently, Professor Ji shows much solicitude for environment, doing researches on environmental communication and writing environment-related papers. “In the initial stage of my research career, I didn’t pay much attention to it.” Professor Ji added that she had once deemed there was no much correlation between her life and the air quality. “However, when my baby was born, the urge to know what’s wrong with our conditions was evoked by something, or, maternal instinct. That’s why former CCTV reporter Chai Jing produced the environmental documentary ‘Under the Dome’, as she mentioned in the beginning.”

A learned and attentive teacher

“She is quite learned and knows the ins and outs of international matters. We usually communicate well with each other although there is many cultural differences in our international students class.” said Baur, a Kazakhstan young man. In her students’ eyes, Professor Ji is quick-minded and knowledgeable. “She admonished us for not wearing enough clothes if it’s cold and brought gifts to us when she came back from Paris.” said Minche, a girl from Indonesia. When a student got sick, she visited him in the hospital with a brunch of flowers. “That’s so nice and I was moved to tears, you see,” the student said.

Professor Ji did not say much about students’ comments, “It is my duty to be a caring teacher. That’s normal, right?”

Although being kind, when it comes to something serious, she would become strict even fastidious. “I’m not a perfectionist but if I am entrusted with one task, I would do my best to finish it well.” Dr. Chen Guochang who worked as a simultaneous interpreter with Professor Ji at The 8th International Conference on Intercultural Communication, commented that she was considerably reliable and conscientious.

Professor Ji is the director of international students programs of Journalism and Communication School. “This project has really broadened my horizon. Also, I know more about their culture and history. Internationalization is definitely the trend of top universities.” Professor Ji hopes more international students will come to Wuhan University and more chances will be available for Chinese students to go abroad. “I really hope our students can benefit from the internationalization of Wuhan University. Thinking and horizon do matter in one’s career, so going abroad to open your mind is one way to grow up,” she said.

A communicative and independent mother

“Of course, sometimes there are conflicts between my work and my family. But I can play these two roles well. I object to dualism, instead, I consider matters in more positive perspective.” If she has no time to be with her children due to her work, she would apologize and explain to them. “They will understand.” she said, “Also, I want to pass on this message that when they grow up they should take responsibility for their work and understand that mother’s duty is not only in accompanying her kids but also in her job because she is an independent person.” Hanging on the wall is a doodle scrawled by her beloved little daughter, Professor Ji looked at it attentively and explained, “She presented it to me and said, ‘mom, this is the day when I get married.’ ”

(Edited by Weixue Li & Sijia Hu)

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