In 2013, I was working as Assistant Professor of Zoology at Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan (Pakistan) after completing my Ph.D. from Medical University Vienna, Austria. One of my ex-students asked for a recommendation letter as he was applying for a Ph.D. scholarship at School of Life Sciences in University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). I wrote the requested letter and sent it to his potential supervisor, Prof. Shi Qinghua. To my surprise, in few minutes, I got the reply from the professor with a note of thanks for the recommendation letter. After exchanging some quick but detailed e-mails, we found that we have common research interests and that led us to work on a collaborative project, which resulted in my postdoctoral fellowship at USTC since April 2014.

I had an opportunity to visit Nantong, China in 2013 before my postdoctoral fellowship. It was my first visit to this wonderland and the trip introduced me to a unique culture to which I was never exposed. It was an interesting experience to listen to Chinese and see people who have different features and culture from the rest of the world. During that short tour, I got the impression that Chinese are very hard working and friendly. The country is progressing with leaps and bounds. These images were strengthened when I joined the School of Life Sciences in Hefei for my Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)-sponsored postdoctoral studies. My lab fellows warmly welcomed me and I was introduced to the technicians, graduates, postgraduate fellows and the supporting staff. I found them lovely and friendly. Luckily, a Pakistani Ph.D scholar was already a member in our lab and helped me settle down. I had a chance to stay in Europe for four years during my doctoral studies, and visited the United States as well. I realized, during the first few days of my stay, that living standards in China are comparable to the West. Research institutes have state-of-the-art laboratories with the Chinese Government spending much on research and development, and Chinese researchers are contributing significantly to national development and science. During the past year, we published a series of research articles dealing with aspects of infertility and moving on with projects from which productive outputs are expected.

During my first lab meeting, I came across an obstacle. The communication was in Chinese, which to me was an alien language. Many of my lab fellows could speak English. While some of them were pretty fluent, they were too shy to communicate in English. I suggested to my mentor, Prof. Shi, that we switch to English during our lab meetings and journal clubs. He warmly accepted and now, after one year, all our lab members can speak English. The friendly ties with my colleagues became stronger with the passage of time and they are always willing to help me go shopping and order things online. It is always exciting and interesting to go out in public as people in my city are very friendly and feels good while being with foreigners. Over the period of time, I learned basic Chinese from my lab fellows. When you communicate with people in their language, they like it a lot. We often get requests to take pictures with native people and when they hear that we are from Pakistan, they express their joy and pleasure as Pakistan and China have a strong relationship. With an increasing influx of foreigners, I am sure that in the near future the gaps between China and the rest of the world will be bridged and that will lead to another era of collaboration and development.

Pakistani students and postdoctoral fellows studying in Dr. Shi Qinghua’s lab. The middle of front row is Dr. Furhan Iqbal.

Dr. Furhan Iqbal

Chinese Academy of Science Postdoctoral Fellow