‘Perfect example of today’s global society’

Yingfang Chen’s life since graduating from TU Delft in 2005 continues to be a search for personal and professional happiness that knows no national borders. Catching up with her a few months ago in Shanghai, where she was working as an urban planner, she looked back fondly on her days at TU Delft, where she said she “learned to think as an individual and independent person.”

“I appreciate Europe very much for its cultural diversity. As a second year student I made a tour through Spain, Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands,” says Yingfang Chen (28) in the lunchroom in Shanghai where we met. “I liked it better than my high school trip to the USA, that’s for sure. Taiwan has a strong orientation towards the States, including the educational system. Most students work hard to get the option of pursuing a master’s or PhD in the United States, which is what several of my friends did. But I wanted something else. I didn’t want to stay on the safe side.”

Yingfang worked for a few years in Taipei after receiving her bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from a university in Taiwan. “It was a fixed plan to leave for Europe, but I just missed the chance for a scholarship. But once I had collected enough money, I took off.”

From 2003 until 2005, Yingfang studied for her MSc degree in urban design at TU Delft. “I owe Delft a lot. I notice specific differences when talking to my friends that have studied in the USA. Yes, they gained knowledge and self-confidence as well. They certainly know how to promote themselves. But I feel that I learned much more about what is going on in the world. Through projects and group workshops in Delft, I was confronted with opinions from students with very different social and cultural backgrounds. This increased my curiosity about other parts of the world. Strong discussions opened my eyes about issues like the environment. I will take this along with me for the rest of my professional life.”
Too fast

After graduating from TU Delft, Yingfang applied and received offers for various jobs in Singapore and for different companies that operate in China. In the end though she selected a Taiwanese architecture and urban design firm that has a branch office in Shanghai.

“Fortunately, I had the luxury of choice,” she says. “I wanted to see some of China, to experience the immense and fascinating developments taking place there. Also, a friend of mine was working and living here in Shanghai, so in the end I moved in with her in her apartment.”

Yingfang is pleased that her boss is giving her quite a bit of personal space to learn. And the projects she is working on are of a high quality. “The office has a good reputation. They don’t take just any job,” she adds. But ultimately, working in Shanghai does not give her the full professional satisfaction that she is looking for.

“I realize more and more that here in Shanghai I cannot create what I really want to create. The gap between me as a designer with my own concerns and the clients expectations is simply too big. I gained so much in conceptual thinking and being careful and considerate about your design and the interventions you make.” she says. “But in China, everything is moving too fast, and speed is more important than quality. Let alone the concept of sustainability. All the clients here want to see are nice renderings, a night view, a daylight view, a bird’s eye view, and a nice picture of the entrance gate. Sometimes that becomes frustrating.”
Bogota

“It’s good to get the experience in China, and the salary is okay. Being here is another step on the road to finding out who I am and what I want. But I don’t think I will find myself here in Shanghai if I sat for another year,” Yingfang admits.

She says her next stop could very well be Bogota, Colombia. And this would be for a special reason: while studying at TU Delft, she met Sergio Moreno, a Colombian, who became her boyfriend. When Sergio graduated from Delft, – one year before Yingfang – he went back to his hometown to start his own office. Yingfang has already been to visit him in Colombia, and he has also flown to Taipei to meet her and her family.

“That is a perfect example of today’s global society,” Yingfang says. “TU Delft helped me to get a good professional education, a liberated mind and a network that reaches to all corners of the world. I have a TU Delft Dutch classmate as a friend here in Shanghai. I recently met another classmate from Japan who is now working in Singapore. And I might be going to Latin America soon to work in a small office there.”

A few months after our interview, Yingfang sent me an email that read: “Happy Chinese pig’s year. Right now I am in Taipei, I quit my job in Shanghai. From March 8 I will start my new life in Bogota. Wish me luck.”

Yingfang Chen: “I owe Delft a lot.” (Photo: Ekim Tan)

“I appreciate Europe very much for its cultural diversity. As a second year student I made a tour through Spain, Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands,” says Yingfang Chen (28) in the lunchroom in Shanghai where we met. “I liked it better than my high school trip to the USA, that’s for sure. Taiwan has a strong orientation towards the States, including the educational system. Most students work hard to get the option of pursuing a master’s or PhD in the United States, which is what several of my friends did. But I wanted something else. I didn’t want to stay on the safe side.”

Yingfang worked for a few years in Taipei after receiving her bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from a university in Taiwan. “It was a fixed plan to leave for Europe, but I just missed the chance for a scholarship. But once I had collected enough money, I took off.”

From 2003 until 2005, Yingfang studied for her MSc degree in urban design at TU Delft. “I owe Delft a lot. I notice specific differences when talking to my friends that have studied in the USA. Yes, they gained knowledge and self-confidence as well. They certainly know how to promote themselves. But I feel that I learned much more about what is going on in the world. Through projects and group workshops in Delft, I was confronted with opinions from students with very different social and cultural backgrounds. This increased my curiosity about other parts of the world. Strong discussions opened my eyes about issues like the environment. I will take this along with me for the rest of my professional life.”
Too fast

After graduating from TU Delft, Yingfang applied and received offers for various jobs in Singapore and for different companies that operate in China. In the end though she selected a Taiwanese architecture and urban design firm that has a branch office in Shanghai.

“Fortunately, I had the luxury of choice,” she says. “I wanted to see some of China, to experience the immense and fascinating developments taking place there. Also, a friend of mine was working and living here in Shanghai, so in the end I moved in with her in her apartment.”

Yingfang is pleased that her boss is giving her quite a bit of personal space to learn. And the projects she is working on are of a high quality. “The office has a good reputation. They don’t take just any job,” she adds. But ultimately, working in Shanghai does not give her the full professional satisfaction that she is looking for.

“I realize more and more that here in Shanghai I cannot create what I really want to create. The gap between me as a designer with my own concerns and the clients expectations is simply too big. I gained so much in conceptual thinking and being careful and considerate about your design and the interventions you make.” she says. “But in China, everything is moving too fast, and speed is more important than quality. Let alone the concept of sustainability. All the clients here want to see are nice renderings, a night view, a daylight view, a bird’s eye view, and a nice picture of the entrance gate. Sometimes that becomes frustrating.”
Bogota

“It’s good to get the experience in China, and the salary is okay. Being here is another step on the road to finding out who I am and what I want. But I don’t think I will find myself here in Shanghai if I sat for another year,” Yingfang admits.

She says her next stop could very well be Bogota, Colombia. And this would be for a special reason: while studying at TU Delft, she met Sergio Moreno, a Colombian, who became her boyfriend. When Sergio graduated from Delft, – one year before Yingfang – he went back to his hometown to start his own office. Yingfang has already been to visit him in Colombia, and he has also flown to Taipei to meet her and her family.

“That is a perfect example of today’s global society,” Yingfang says. “TU Delft helped me to get a good professional education, a liberated mind and a network that reaches to all corners of the world. I have a TU Delft Dutch classmate as a friend here in Shanghai. I recently met another classmate from Japan who is now working in Singapore. And I might be going to Latin America soon to work in a small office there.”

A few months after our interview, Yingfang sent me an email that read: “Happy Chinese pig’s year. Right now I am in Taipei, I quit my job in Shanghai. From March 8 I will start my new life in Bogota. Wish me luck.”

Yingfang Chen: “I owe Delft a lot.” (Photo: Ekim Tan)