Our Jesuit Tradition
Culture, learning, and friendship
ChinaContact® grows out of a tradition more than four centuries old: Jesuit scholars who came to China to learn, and who found that real cultural engagement begins with friendship.
LEARNING THAT STARTS WITH FRIENDSHIP
Ricci, Xu Guangqi, and the Jesuits in Beijing
In 1601, after nearly two decades of studying China’s language and classics, the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci (利玛窦) arrived in Beijing and was received at the Ming court. His friendship with the scholar Xu Guangqi (徐光启) became one of history’s great intellectual partnerships: the two learned from each other and together translated Euclid into Chinese.
Those who followed, among them Johann Adam Schall von Bell (汤若望) and Ferdinand Verbiest (南怀仁), served as astronomers at the imperial court. Verbiest’s bronze instruments still stand at the Beijing Ancient Observatory, and all three men are buried in Beijing’s Zhalan Cemetery. ChinaContact® groups can visit these sites, from the observatory to Ricci’s tomb.
The Ignatian Way of Learning
Jesuit schools and universities around the world teach through Ignatian pedagogy: understanding the context, learning through direct experience, reflecting on what it means, and turning that reflection into action. Many of our partner schools already teach this way, and it is how ChinaContact® programs are built.
How It Shapes Your Trip
“China is the classroom.”
- Context: briefings before and at the start of the program, so participants arrive knowing what they are about to see.
- Experience: site visits, lectures, and conversations with people who live and work in China.
- Reflection: short guided reflections during the trip, individually and as a group.
- Action: a final debrief that connects what participants learned to their studies, work, and communities.
PART OF A GLOBAL NETWORK
ChinaContact® is a program of The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies (TBC), the only Jesuit center in mainland China. TBC was founded in 1998 with the support of Jesuit universities in the United States, and today is a member of the two networks below. Read TBC’s history.
International Association of Jesuit Universities (IAJU)
TBC is a member of the International Association of Jesuit Universities (IAJU), the global network that connects Jesuit universities and colleges across six world regions.
TBC was invited to the United States to attend the IAJU conference.
AJCU-AP
Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in Asia Pacific (AJCU-AP)
TBC is also a member of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in Asia Pacific (AJCU-AP), the regional network of Jesuit higher education in Asia and the Pacific, and hosted the AJCU-AP CEOs meeting in Beijing in 2024.
