Exchange Student: From Shanghai To 'Middle Of Nowhere'

Wenting Yu prepares to complete her sophomore year at Pope John XXIII Central Catholic High School in Elgin.

Wenting Yu of China is about to culminate her nearly 11-month stint as a sophomore at Pope John XXIII Central Catholic High School in Elgin. The Shanghai native is set to make the 40+ hour journey back across the world on June 1 and describes her feelings as “bittersweet.”

To be sure, one can hardly imagine the culture shock Yu experienced as she traded the throngs of her hometown in the most populous city in China for life on the Paul and Diane Dicke Sandhills ranch west of Elgin, NE.

Yu, or “Ting Ting,” as her fellow schoolmates call her, reflects that it does feel like being in “the middle of nowhere” here, especially when you’re used to sharing a city with 24 million other people, instead of 800, and trade a class size of 600 for a class size of 16.

Back in China, Yu lives with her father and mother and her pet parrot Lucia, and describes the one child policy of China as well as a myriad of other cultural differences between the US and China in an iBook she wrote, which may be found on the iBooks app by searching for “Wenting Yu.”

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Find Yu's iBook in the iBooks app on your iphone or ipad, and read Yu's humorous accounts of life in Shanghai. Search for "Wenting Yu."

From her iBook and from speaking with Yu, it is evident that she has a fresh outlook and well-developed sense of humor. When asked about the greatest cultural difference between here and China, she deadpanned, “The bathrooms!”

On a more serious note, she went on to say that people here seem more energetic and much less strict than those back in China—especially the teachers, who, in China, command a high degree of respect, which Yu also describes in fascinating and humorous detail in her book.

Yu stayed busy throughout the school year, and enjoyed participating in the choir, speech, One-Act, and the spring musical, “Back to the 80s,” and even admitted to knowing at least half of the pop culture references and music from the production.

​In the future, Yu does hope to one day return to visit the US. In the meantime, she will complete her final two years of high school, and hopes to attend college, and “find a way to live a happy life in the future.”

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