Chickpea Classics Institutes (CCI) was based off two simple wishes, that classics enthusiasts could have a both offline and digital community for conducting academic pursuits and conversing with fellow students, and that individuals who did not have the incentive or the opportunity to be acquainted with classical literature and linguistics could access a platform providing high-quality and rigorous academic content in a direct student-to-student mode of operation.
The student organization was founded by Yicheng Xia, a 28’ student at BDFZ Dalton with a staunch interesting in poets of the Late Roman Republic and Early Empire, most notably Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Catullus, and in Hindu theology, especially its eschatological branch. Ever since his participation in Future Humanities Academy session of 2025, Yicheng has been motivated to reach larger audiences and student bodies with his passion for the profession, establishing Chickpea Classics Institute, an in-school student club centered on linguistic and narrative analyses of Virgilian texts which as of September 2026 has attracted over 50 student participants. Commencing in October 2025, the club has conducted weekly activities in both offline and online formats, while hosting special guest lectures sporadically. However, as the student body reached by activities expanded, Yicheng and fellow club leaders sensed the need to further broaden the reaches of the institution through partnering similar student associations. In the process of contacting both established student groups and interested individual enthusiasts from schools in Beijing and beyond, the idea for a united organization arose.
Currently, the organization has five active and confirmed member institutions, clubs from BNDS, Beijing No.80 High School, and other high school international departments included; also, partnerships between CCI and two other humanities-centered student-formed student-led associations, UHHC and BoMinds, have been established. The organization’s main form of operation is through monthly collaborative activities between the in-school club and one other student club member focused on different aspects through which the Aeneid, Virgil’s arguable magnum opus and the keystone of all of the club’s previous meetings, could be reinterpreted and reread. Activities have so far concerned both cosmological and historical reexaminations of the Aeneid’s literary and thematic values and profundity. Besides textural dives, the organization has also participated and plans to host additional seminars/online webinars with partner institutions and member clubs concerning a wider range of humanities-related interdisciplinary topics worth discussing. Other means of organizational activities include online blog updates via Wechat, Red Notes, Bilibili and Substack, and themed personal submission sessions welcoming all with personal creations and compositions pertaining to the quarterly topic.
From lengthy Latin readings to exploring relevant rationales, CCI has and will continue to contribute content worthy of being read and discussing topics worthy for being considered. With more accessible classics information uploaded and more varied media attempted at, we hope to achieve what allied student associations are also striving to surmount: to be among enthusiasts, and to go beyond enthusiasts.