Rizwan Ali, a doctoral student from Pakistan, recently published an article in Computers in Human Behavior, a journal with a 5-Year Impact Factor of 3.724 according to ELSEVIER. This achievement has made Rizwan a star in academia among his peers.
First-year memories in China
In 2016, Rizwan Ali came to China and started his doctoral student journey in the Economics and Management School of Wuhan University. Before coming to China, Rizwan completed his undergraduate studies in Forman Christian College (FCCU), in Pakistan. Then he did his MBA Degree in marketing at the Institute of Management Sciences in Pakistan.
“Why did you choose China?” This seems to be a question for every foreign student in China. As for Rizwan, besides the attractiveness of Bruce Lee’s movies, his affection for China was rooted in his childhood. “I had a strong association with China since I was a little boy, which is why I have chosen China. I want to experience the real world of China on my own,” said Rizwan.
Rizwan (the 3rd from right) with his Chinese teacher and classmates
The real China is apparently different from his imagination. “Before coming here, I thought that all Chinese people rode bicycles as their daily transportation, but after coming here I realized that I was wrong. I was so surprised to see the great development of Chinese people’s lives. I shared these interesting things with my Chinese language teacher ‘Fu Laoshi’ and she said China has made very rapid progress, which is also in line with the Wuhan’s official slogan ‘Wuhan Different Everyday’”.
Rizwan still remembers his first step in China when he came from Pakistan last year. “My first step in China was at Urumqi Airport where I read a phrase on the divider wall ‘Ni Hao’. I came to realize that it means ‘Hello’ in Chinese. From this very first Chinese word that we all learned, I was filled with bliss and enthusiasm.”
“My first year in Wuhan University was one of the most magnificent years of my life in a foreign country because I had countless beautiful experiences. I met with many people from diverse nations, societies and races, and speaking different languages.” The foreign student collective management system in WHU provides Rizwan and other foreign students with a chance to experience different cultures and learn greetings in different languages. Rizwan has made many friends in his class. He also expressed his gratefulness to his teachers who gave him a lot of help. “I learnt Chinese language with full interest which was enhanced by my wonderful teachers. I truly admire my Chinese teachers Fu Chunyuan, Zhai Yinghua, and Zhao Pu who have been helping me throughout my career. I am really enlivened by their art of teaching and their way of dealing with international students.”
Rizwan said he has explored many places during his first year: the East Lake, the Yangtze River, Optics Valley, Han Street, and Jiang Han Road. He also enjoyed various campus activities here. The Cultural Festival of Wuhan University, for example, always gives him a chance to represent his country and the core values of his nation.
The beginning of my doctoral study
In Rizwan’s eyes, Wuhan University is a very exceptional university in China. The WHU Economics and Management School is one of the most famous ones. His instructor Professor Huang Minxue is a very experienced professor.
“I am lucky enough that I got all the things under one rooftop. I have gained considerable amount of knowledge from Professor Huang regarding my major. He provided us with a MEI Laboratory (Marketing, Engineering, and Innovation) which is one of the best research laboratories of China! I feel so glad to be a member of MEI.”
Rizwan in front of the MEI lab
In May 2017, Rizwan’s research article, “The effect of user experience in online games on word of mouth: A pleasure-arousal-dominance (PAD) model perspective”, was published in SSCI index journal Computers in Human Behavior. This American based journal, with an impact factor of 2.888, is well-recognized in psychology and multidisciplinary fields.
“It is a significant privilege for me. It was certainly not possible without the well-ordered assistance from Professor Huang who spent a lot of time guiding me. I am exceptionally grateful to my co-author Liao Junyun who gave me genuine support amid research.” Rizwan felt so grateful for the help and guidance from his supervisor Prof. Huang, and his co-writer Liao Junyun.
This paper discusses the word of mouth (WOM) in the online game industry. As the paper says, online games are now a prosperous industry. Despite the popularity of online games, game developers confront the short life cycle of online games. To tackle this significant challenge, game developers utilize the power of WOM to diffuse games quickly. However, the influences of WOM intention in the context of online games remain unexplored. To address this gap, this study investigates the manner in which three types of experiences, namely, the functional, hedonic, and social influence WOM. Drawing from the “pleasure–arousal–dominance model”, the authors propose that user experience leads to WOM by evoking pleasure, arousal, and dominance. Using the survey data collected from online game players, this study reveals that user experience significantly affects consumer intention to spread WOM.
Rizwan (right) in on a marketing science conference
Expectations for future life and research
During his fulfilling school life in China, Rizwan gained a lot both in academic and other fields. While learning the Chinese language, he was the top student of his class. Like other foreigners, he also thinks that writing Chinese characters is a little bit troublesome. But he believed that it can be managed with practice, since “practice makes perfect”.
Rizwan has attended JMS (Journal of Marketing Science) conferences twice: one was in Shanghai and the other in Peking University. Thanks to these conferences, he had the opportunity to meet with lots of marketing think tanks and learned a lot from them.
Considering his excellent achievements, Rizwan was awarded the scholarship for excellent international students in WHU for his hard work during his studies and his active participation in various activities. In 2016, he won the scholarship for outstanding international students, a scholarship established by the Chinese government.
Rizwan and his son in an activity
As for his future plan for life and research, Rizwan demonstrates his enthusiasm for his field of research. He looks forward to the future of Sino-Pakistan relationships with optimism. “Pakistan and China are great companions and I want to play a vital role to make this relationship even stronger.” The Belt and Road Initiative provides Rizwan and his colleagues a great perspective for research. “Our upcoming research articles are about the Belt and Road Initiative, and we are going to suggest for Chinese companies to make global brands in order to capture the developing markets which take up 80 percent of the global market. Ideally our upcoming research will be exceptionally helpful in making the strong bond of China with other nations particularly with Pakistan. I really appreciate that the Chinese government has provided me such a great chance to continue my higher education in Wuhan University.”
Edited by Wu Siying, Edmund Wai Man Lai & Hu Sijia
