Dancing to the tune of creativity

This is exemplified by Pan, who crossed paths and forged a friendship with Zeng Yige, a doctoral student in life sciences and a street dance enthusiast at Tsinghua University.

As the deputy director of the DK5 dance club at Tsinghua University, Zeng is responsible for organizing the crew's daily activities and coordinating exchange events with dance clubs from other universities.

"Consequently, I have good friends from Peking University, Communication University of China, Beijing Sport University and Beijing Institute of Technology with whom I frequently hang out," she explains.

In the school of medicine, where research pressures loom large, Zeng somehow managed to carve out around two hours every day for her true passion — street dance.

She will arrive at the laboratory by 9 am, immerse herself in her study and conducting experiments until 10 pm. Then, she will slip out of her white lab coat and, in the laboratory restroom, she undergoes a metamorphosis from a diligent researcher into a streetwise dancer, with bold eyeliner and vibrant eye shadow applied, and emerges clad in a fashionable, oversized outfit. It's time to get her groove on as the beats of hip-hop music reverberate in the university's dance studio.

"In a campus environment as academically intense as Tsinghua's, where everyone is engrossed in their studies, one might wonder why anyone would persist in dancing," Zeng explains. "Amid the rigor of learning, why take on an additional demanding pursuit? For me, it's because dancing brings me back to my roots and the essence of who I wanted to be — someone cool, good-looking, expressive, and capable of radiating energy and positivity to others.

"If I couldn't dance, I couldn't continue with my research. In my life on campus, both research and dance are indispensable," she emphasizes.

According to Zeng, she completed her undergraduate studies at Wuhan University, where her focus was primarily on learning how to become a dance performer capable of delivering polished routines, developing her body and enhancing her expressiveness through dance.