Humanitarian Agil Aliyev

CCNU 2018 GRADUATES

Agil Aliyev is a master student majoring in Humanitarian Diplomacy and will soon graduate from CCNU. As a humanitarian, Agil has a motto, “If there is a child crying, I will wipe his or her tears.” Besides being an outstanding student, he is also a great artist. He is a violinist and is a master of pyrography, the art of decorating wood or other materials by burning or scorching with hot instruments.

Now, let’s take a closer look and learn more about Agil.

About school life

In Agil’s opinion, university is the place where you find guidance for your life. “It gives you a direction and if you want to achieve something, you must stick to that direction and explore all the possibilities of it. The university points out a way for you and it is also the way itself. You can learn from everything.”

Love & respect is the universal language 

“Follow your heart because your heart will always tell you the truth.”

Back in 2015, Agil was confronted with a dilemma, whether he should come to China without scholarship or stay in his home country.

There were many difficulties on his way to China. At that time, he had a good job in a five-star hotel with a considerable salary. Studying in China meant leaving behind his comfortable life, being away from his family and friends, and staying in a place that is totally strange to him. To him, China was a distant country that he didn’t know much about and the limited knowledge he had about China came from some early Kungfu movies of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. The language was a major problem, too – He barely knew Chinese.

But he followed his heart and took the journey to Wuhan for his love. At that time, his girlfriend received a scholarship from CCNU and he followed her steps. When he first arrived in China at Beijing West Railway Station, he was surprised to see all those crowds in the station. Again, he was faced with a difficult choice, to go forward to Wuhan despite the hardships or to return to Azerbaijan and restore his old life. Still, following his heart, he got on the train to Wuhan.

In CCNU, he met people from all over the world, people of different nationalities, races, religions, cultures etc. In the process of getting along with others, Agil developed a unique set of life philosophy: there are two languages that everyone speaks, love, and respect and it is the similarities in humanity that binds everyone together. He always put this philosophy into practice. During his time in Wuhan, he heard a lot of international students talking about cultural shock. But that was not the case for him. With his positive attitude, he fit in better than others.

Besides, Agil is a humanist. “If there is a child crying, I will wipe his or her tears.” He said. His humanism has its root in the Nagorno-Karabakh War. During the war, innocent people were killed, including kids. Back in his country, he led an organization to help orphanage kids and here in Wuhan, he also works in a kindergarten with kids, who, in his heart, are the purest existence in this world. When he began to write his master’s thesis, with his supervisor’s help, he set the issue of children as the topic. He did his research all day and night, the result confirmed that in some parts of the world, kids are facing some major problems like rape, smuggling, organ trafficking, human trafficking and racism, yet they have no sin. Devoted his heart and soul into the search, he became more motivated and wanted to do something to help the children. Besides, he found that China is a big country which has successfully dealt with the relationship among different ethnic groups, and these experiences can be extracted to cope with international issues.

Stick to your dreams, don’t give up

“Chasing your dream is like climbing a mountain. When you climb the mountain, you will have to face some small stones, and you have to keep going on when faced with problems.” When asked about his motivation and dreams, Agil says, “First, I want to devote myself to the mission of  solving the problems of children, secondly, I want to acquire knowledge and help more people. So, if your dream hasn’t accomplished yet, don’t give up, just carry on and wait.”

Chinese culture inheritance

Agil is proud of his motherland, Azerbaijan, and his Asian identity. During his staying in China, he finds that there are many similarities between Azerbaijan and China, especially some traditional values like giving high respect to senior citizens. But the Chinese young generations’ behavior of deviating from the traditions confuses him. “I hope in the future, Chinese people can do a better job inheriting Chinese culture.” Said Agil.

Future plan

“Every one has a has-to-do. When you come to this world, you have a mission. Like he can do anything, but he wants to be a good father; she can do anything, but she just wants to be a good wife. You have to find your mission. I hope I can be helpful to people. After graduation, I’ll see myself in the summer organization. I’ll see myself in Africa, I’ll see myself in the Philippines, in China, all over the world. I admire Mao Zedong and Sun Yat-sen and I hope one day I can become a person like them and my deeds can be immortal.”

Words to CCNU

I appreciate everyone in CCNU and I hope our university can have a world reputation someday. In my opinion, if you want to improve, you have to observe and compare yourself with others. I have some friends in Wuhan University and when I went there, I could see that students there are very busy and really hard working. They participate in all kinds of events, they are energetic. We should learn from them.

I hope CCNU students can participate more in some productive events, organize some creative events, or join some activities to represent our university. And also, I think it’s important that Chinese students and international students combine with each other.

Advice for CCNU students

As an international student in CCNU, he finds that most international students are having a tight schedule and some of them put the social life in the first place and neglect their study. “I want to say to foreign students that your time is limited, you can’t waste your time on some meaningless things. International students here in China can get some knowledge, learn different traditions and learn new skills. For example, you can learn Chinese traditional painting in your spare time. I am crazy about Chinese medicine like acupuncture (needle therapy). And I hope I can help people with acupuncture skills I learnt someday. ”

As for Chinese students, he believes that some of them are too restrained by the rules they set for themselves and maybe stepping out of that small frame would be a significant move towards success. “To make your life interesting, you need to learn how to arrange your time. To make your life colorful, you have to try something new. Don’t always live for others or hesitate to make a decision, you have to think independently and should always listen to your heart.”