At their first practice in China as part of an exchange program with Tsinghua University this summer, Harvard senior guard Harmoni Turner and junior guard Gabby Anderson made sure they brought the energy. The Tsinghua players were more reserved than Turner and Anderson were used to, so Anderson taught them to slap the court and yell, “Defense!”
And Turner? She was talking trash — and encouraging the Tsinghua players to talk back, despite the language barrier.
“It’s a global transaction,” Turner joked in an interview with The Next.
Turner and Anderson were part of the 2024 USA-China College Basketball Team Exchange Activity, which brought women’s and men’s players from several elite U.S. colleges to Beijing from Aug. 5 to 12. The program came about after Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden discussed increasing exchange programs between their countries in a 2023 meeting. Xi followed that up with a goal of bringing 50,000 American students to China over the next five years, and Huang Yi-cong Foundation and Tsinghua University developed the basketball exchange program to support that goal.
The goal of the program was to deepen ties between the United States and China and broaden the participants’ perspectives by introducing them to international student-athletes.
Anderson and Turner found out about the program from two Harvard men’s players, Chandler Piggé and Thomas Batties II, who were also on the trip. As it turned out, the organizers were looking for more women’s players, and Turner and Anderson were in.
Dartmouth sophomore guard Sierra Carson and sophomore forward Cate MacDonald were also part of the exchange program, bringing the total number of participants from Ivy League women’s basketball teams to four. (Dartmouth did not make Carson or MacDonald available for interviews for this story.)
The exchange program had a packed schedule that ranged from sightseeing to lectures on economics and business to networking opportunities. Anderson and Turner were both interested in the program in part for the career opportunities it provided, including visits to the consulting firm EY and the technology and video-game company Tencent.
“One of the things I wanted to focus on [this summer] was branching out and exploring different careers,” Anderson told The Next. “So I’ve been visiting different companies throughout the summer, and … being able to not only go to China, but also experience how those brands work over there was very eye-opening, and I was happy to get that experience.”
At the same time, there was plenty of basketball on the trip, as the players had several practices before playing a charity exhibition game on Aug. 10. That was important to Turner ahead of a season in which Harvard returns nearly its entire roster and is looking to win its first Ivy League title since 2008.
“We tried to implement as much basketball as we could,” Turner said, “because I told [the trip organizers] from the jump, ‘If I can’t get in the gym, I don’t know how this trip is gonna work.’”
However, one day that the group stayed out of the gym was Aug. 8. Instead, it visited the Summer Palace, which was originally built in the mid-1700s for the Chinese royal family, and climbed the Great Wall of China, which Anderson called “a workout in itself.”
“It just kept going,” Anderson added about the Great Wall. “It’s like, there’s different points you reach, and you can’t see further. And so … I’m like, ‘Man, I ate it up. I made it to the top.’ And they’re like, ‘No, let’s keep going.’”
The group also toured Tsinghua University, visited Shichahai Park and decorated Chinese fans. The visit to Tencent, which is the largest video-game company in the world, was a particular highlight for Turner.
“That was low-key kind of surreal, in a sense, just because I was just like, ‘We’re really here in the biggest technology company in China, which is crazy,” Turner said. “And the tour was great. I got to touch [an] imaginary bumblebee using a green screen [background]. It was so nice. And also them demonstrating how each app works and maneuvers.”
Along the way, there were several instances of culture shock. Turner was squeamish about eating octopus that was cooked tableside after seeing it move in the pot. On the other hand, she and Anderson were pleasantly surprised at how affordable so many things were, and they loved bargaining with local vendors to buy souvenirs.
On the basketball court, too, Anderson and Turner were exposed to a different style of play as the Americans and the Tsinghua players practiced together and mixed teams for the exhibition. Anderson and Turner said they learned that women in Chinese culture are expected to be relatively reserved and that the Tsinghua players viewed basketball like their job because they’d signed agreements with the university. As a result, Tsinghua players were quiet and serious on the court and played a more methodical style than what she and Turner are used to in Cambridge.
Turner and Anderson developed an appreciation for those cultural differences, but they also injected an energy and lightheartedness into practices that the Tsinghua players enjoyed. After the program ended, Anderson said she got messages from Tsinghua players saying they’d kept up the energy they’d seen from the Americans.
“[We were] just teaching them there’s a different way to experience basketball, and it doesn’t have to be so straightforward and serious all the time,” Anderson said. “… We brought the fun. We were having lots of fun.”
Turner added, “And it’s OK to make mistakes, because that’s kind of what life is anyway. And I think honestly, reiterating that to them helped me as well, because I felt like I was also talking to myself that, yes, ball is life, but it’s really just a game. … Obviously, the end goal is to win, but just bringing back that joy and that fun that we kind of used to have when we first started playing.”
In addition to learning from the Tsinghua players, there were opportunities to learn from the rest of the American contingent, which included men’s and/or women’s players from Amherst College, Columbia University, Emmanuel College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania and Williams College.
“I feel like those are friends that I’ll probably have for a really long time. … Hearing their view on things definitely inspired me to look at things from a different approach as well,” Turner said. “So I think it was a great group … because we’ve learned so much from each other, and we also created this fun group.”
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Days after getting back from the trip, Anderson and Turner were still jetlagged, but they were also extremely appreciative of their experience. Seeing different cultures and lifestyles “helps you see we are very blessed,” Anderson said. “… It’s amazing that we had the opportunity to be a part of this group, and it just made me very thankful for the life that I lead.”
Turner echoed that minutes later. “It definitely helps me open a different perspective of how I kind of see life in general, which is pretty nice and a blessing,” she said. “[I’m] super grateful.”
She paused, wanting to emphasize the point further. “‘Blessed’ should be, like, bolded in your article,” she said.
