Two sides of the world came together Sunday night in an attempt to bridge the gap.

Students from Friends University gathered in the Marriage and Family Therapy Building to speak with Chinese students from Xi’an International Studies University.

The students at the university in the Shaanxi Province are studying language and wanted to convey a message to the Friends students.

“I think they were wanting to put down some misconceptions about China because there are a lot of stereotypes,” said Friends senior Cherie Farinola.

Two professors from China as well as a Friends professor and the dean of CBASE, Kyle Usrey, spoke at the meeting to help educate students about the changes China has been going through over the past 30 years. They also spoke about several misconceptions that have become stereotypes about many of the Chinese people.

“We wanted to increase the mutual understandings and make it so we know that we don’t need to be scared of China,” said Guang Qiu Xu, a history professor at Friends and one of the lecturers.

The idea came from Xu and Gretchen Eick, another history professor at Friends, and two Chinese Fulbright scholars who visited Friends during the 2005-2006 school year.

The relationships established during that time and over an expedition that Xu and several students took to China last summer gave birth to the idea.

Xu said the convenience of technology made it possible, bringing in about 70 students from Friends and over 100 in total attendance.

After the lectures they opened the floor for a few questions to be answered from both sides.

One of the professors had spoken of the rise of Christianity in China prompting the question for the Friends students about the impact of the Bible and Christianity on the Friends campus. Friends students asked the Chinese about the current protests over the Beijing Olympics and the people of Tibet.