Growing up in Germany, it wasn’t just unusual that Elisabeth Köll wanted to study Chinese.
It was so rare for students at Bonn University to focus on it, there was even a term for it — an “orchid subject.”
Nevertheless, Köll was fascinated by China, and her decision to spend two years as an undergraduate in a government exchange program at Fudan University in Shanghai deepened her interest in Chinese history — and launched her global career.
Her passion led her from Shanghai to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and now to her current work as a renowned scholar of Chinese business and economic history.
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Originally published by at al.nd.edu on March 15, 2019.