In brief
The Jakarta expo held on Sunday showcased Chinese universities including Peking and Tsinghua and drew around 3,000 participants. Young students like Calysta Wijaya and Richard Dharma Hungnata highlighted how Chinese proficiency opens study and career doors, while teacher Zheng Wenting noted a surge in enrollment. An alumnus, Dexter Godwin, illustrated success stories of Indonesian graduates working in China.
The 2026 Indonesia HSK study in China and career expo was held in Jakarta on Sunday, drawing about 3,000 Indonesian students, Chinese language learners and parents who were seeking information on study opportunities in China.
The event showcased 21 Chinese universities, including Peking University and Tsinghua University, and featured a variety of booths that highlighted admission requirements and program options for Indonesian youth.
Calysta Jacqueline Wijaya, a 16‑year‑old high‑school student, told Xinhua that she has been learning Chinese for 11 years and wants to study pharmacy in China so that she can bring professional knowledge back to Indonesia to help more people.
I want to study pharmacy in China,
Calysta said, noting that she is working to improve her score on the Chinese Proficiency Test, or HSK, in preparation for applying to Chinese universities.
Another participant, Richard Dharma Hungnata, 15, has also studied Chinese since his first year of primary school and can already communicate fluently in the language. He hopes to study engineering at a Chinese university and plans to take the HSK exam after his second year of high school in order to strengthen his university applications.
Zheng Wenting, the teacher who heads a Mandarin education centre in Indonesia, said that more Indonesian parents have become interested in having their children learn Chinese in recent years, and that enrollment at her institution has grown from about 50 students per intake a decade ago to nearly 500 today.
At the booth of the Beijing‑based China University of Petroleum, Dexter Godwin, an Indonesian graduate who earned his degree in petroleum engineering in China, spoke about how studying abroad has shaped his career and his decision to work in Indonesia.
The expo underscored how Chinese language education is becoming an integral part of the educational journey for a growing number of Indonesian youth, offering both university admission opportunities and future career pathways in China.
