Advertisement
China

Chen Lu founded online community to help students go abroad

Chen Lu's online community advises young people on studying abroad

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Chen Lu is founder of CAPE, which enables young people to reach out to each other and share experiences about their studies or lives in overseas countries. Photo: SMP
Chen Lu is still a little bitter about a visa mishap that cost him the chance to go to India four years ago, but he used the experience as motivation and co-founded an online community that brings together mainland students and people with business ambitions. The 24-year-old, based in Wuxi in the eastern province of Jiangsu, attributed his visa problem to not getting the right advice, as well as having limited access to information. In the hope of helping other people avoid the problems he faced, Chen launched CAPE at Hicape.com in 2011. It has slowly grown into a small online community for young people to reach out to each other and share experiences about their studies or internships in foreign countries, as well as to help develop their careers. He talks about how the initiative empowered him and other young people to reach beyond the nation's borders.

CAPE stands for collective, adventure, practice and experience. It is an open platform, mostly for young Chinese who have international ambitions, where they can share observations and experiences from studying overseas, or assist their career development, such as helping them get internships and become entrepreneurs in an increasingly globalised world. We now have more than 400 contributors from about 30 countries who talk about their studies, lives and business start-ups. And our microblog account on Sina.com.
Advertisement

has attracted nearly 8,500 followers. On top of that, we organise meetings for like-minded people to get together and discuss specific topics. So far we have held such gatherings in several cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou , Hong Kong, New York and Singapore.

Advertisement

I was at university in 2009 when I learned about an internship programme in India that I was very interested in. I won't go into too many details, but I didn't get the chance because I lost my passport during my visa application process when I used a visa agent, and I couldn't get the visa on time. The internet is a vast source of information … but at the same time we're bombarded with so much different information. So I started thinking of a better way for like-minded people to share insights about their similar paths and experiences, which people like me want to learn about. But it wasn't until the first half of 2011 that I put my thoughts into action, along with a Chinese student in Canada who I met online, and his friend, a former intern with the United Nations. At the beginning, CAPE served mainly as a platform for overseas Chinese students to share experiences about their studies and lives in foreign countries.

Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x