Dear Professor,

It has been 6 months since I arrived in Leeds University from the University of California at Berkeley and one experience has positively stood out to me.  Surprisingly, it hasn't been my treks around the European continent that have greatly enriched my year abroad, but my participation in a society that would seem more appropriately placed in California—the Breakdance Society.   

Entering the UK University system as a 3rd year is not an easy task when coming from the American school system.  Most people have their friends already because they have been in University together for 2 years already.  Lecture often only happens once a week so the only way to meet good friends is through societies or work.  The Breakdance Society meets 3 times a week and often there are extra sessions for people who want extra training or who miss the other sessions.  As a result, members spend the vast majority of their free time together.  In the beginning of the year, all the beginners including myself, formed small crews to compete against each other and provide positive peer pressure to train together.  My closest friends here now consist of my flatmates and my crew.   

Besides the Breakdance Society providing me with a way to keep fit and make friends, it has provided insight into numerous different cultures.  My crew consists of people from London, Toronto, Tokyo, Kuwait, the Ivory Coast, and California.  While all of us are university students, many of the Society are not.  This may be displeasing to the University of Leeds, but to me, an international student, it gives me the rare chance to meet others that are not in the same boat as me.  For example, through the Breakdancing Society, I have been introduced to a Muslim-backed non-University based group called the Leeds Bgirls (Breakgirls).  This group provides training space and instruction for girls to train without the pressure of the sometimes intimidating opposite sex.  It also allows Muslim women to train in more relaxed environment due to reasons (ie showing hair) that do not necessarily concern non-Muslims such as myself.

While the Breakdance Society may seem like a purposeless society in terms of 'social cause,' I believe that there is much more to it.  The culture of Hip Hop (which breakdancing is a part of), at its roots, is based on expression and unity; it is a medium for people of different backgrounds to come together despite their differences.  At home, I have not had much exposure to Muslims simply because there aren't as many or more complicatedly, because religion is an almost taboo subject that people avoid in order to remain politically correct.   

I am ashamed to admit it, but I would be lying if I said the media had not influenced my views on Muslims, because there had been nothing else to rebuke the image the media had painted.  Because of this, the term 'Muslim' carried with it the negative connotations of oppression and violence.  Muslim activists that I sometimes saw on the street had just as much effect as Christian radicals screaming to me that I was Hell-bound.  Not until I joined the Breakdance Society did I have the opportunity to meet Muslims, as well as others, as real people.  It was not some dramatic breakthrough in my way of thought, because the prejudice I had before was only very vague, but it still exposed me to people that I would never have met otherwise and gave me something solid to go against media portrayals.   

Hopefully, as a Chinese American, I have also given a positive representation of Americans (to show that not all Americans are as inconsiderate and self-centred as media often portrays us) as well as Chinese people.  From this experience, I've realised that people's prejudices are more effectively fought not by mass campaigns, but by something as simple as breakdancing together.   

At home, this culture of hip hop has been tainted by excessive commercialisation resulting in some people claiming to be more 'hip hop' than others and leading to unnecessary hostility.  Here in the UK, I don't feel the same hostility and ironically, the culture here is closer to the roots of Hip Hop than at home where Hip Hop originated.  Hopefully, I can bring some of this back to the States and contribute to the reversal of the self-destructive path that the Hip Hop community is following.  Because of the popularity of hip hop, the potential for the immense positive influence that hip hop can have on young people will be wasted if nothing is done.

Sincerely,
Erica Liu