Volunteer Reflections: Joey Xu

 

Hello, my name is Chaoyu Xu (known as Joey in the Our Broomhall project) and I’m a full-time Master student from China, majoring in Chinese Studies. I’ve been involved in the Our Broomhall project since November 2014 and am now working as a Heritage Assistant which is approved by the Graduate Advantage Scheme of the University.

When I settled down in Sheffield at the beginning of my courses, I knew nothing to do in my extracurricular time. At the job fair on campus I learned about the Our Broomhall project and found it fascinating because I could explore local history and culture by integrating myself with this area. After a short interview with Jennie Beard (Project Manager), I was introduced to the whole process and content of the project and it really interested me.

Mainly I transcribed historical documents and scanned old community newsletters. It might be a little bit boring at beginning doing this technical work, but not long after that I found my own interests by reading and researching those archival resources. I didn’t expect any news reporting Chinese people in Sheffield in the mid-19^th century, for example, which amazingly shocked me. The sad thing, however, was that the report portrayed two Chinese people killed in this area. I was also impressed by Children’s protest demanding for their survival of playground in 1980s. There were many other interesting or awesome articles, images or newspaper about the celebrities, activities, accidents, etc. Now I know more about the heritage, nature and culture of the Broomhall district and have integrated well into local life, more than I expected.

The Broomhall Centre provides me with a friendly and intensive place to work, people here are very warm-hearted. Through this project I have gained some new skills such as project management and archival research which will benefit me in the future. I’m now preparing myself for the application of PhD in Oriental Studies in Oxford University, so this experience with the Our Broomhall project has trained me well and it will really help in the application process.