“Contemporary Chinese History & Society is the core course for a 6-week summer study program based at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China’s top-ranking institution of higher learning. The course is designed to help students develop an understanding of China’s historic, economic, and social transformation, its emerging role as a world superpower, and the global implications ofthis transformation. It also seeks to promote understanding and appreciation of contemporary Chinese culture so that students can become bridge-builders between North-American and Chinese people.

Tsinghua professors will begin with an overview of the cultural-historic foundations against which contemporary China is understood, including the early development of Chinese civilization, hallmarks of traditional China, early East-West exchanges, and the historic significance of China. The focus will then move to key concepts and historical developments in China from mid 1800’s to the present, with emphasis on understanding the worldview of the Chinese people, including China’s interaction with the West, with a focus on the last 100 years. This interdisciplinary course provides insight into China’s contemporary social and cultural issues with an overview of its political system, economic system, social structures, as well as the non-profit and religious sectors. Examining a broad range of topics from an interdisciplinary perspective, students are asked to think creatively and critically about the profound socioeconomic transformation that China is currently undergoing and how these changes are impacting the Chinese people as well as China’s larger role in the global context.

The course also features a two-week service learning project in rural western Chinese where the students will teach in a local middle school, partner with a local community development center, and learn the basic principles of ethnographic social research as they conduct research in the local community. The course offers a total of 24 lectures, integrated with 12 cultural and historicsite visits, a two-week service-learning project in western China, and other experiential learning activities.

http://www.globalstudieschina.com

Usually I’m sitting, folding into space

Other times I’m thinking in deep void

Silence praying even in sobriety

Words are simple glances into the past

past I hold.

Dreams everyday I dream in living

Dawn has spoken, birds have spoken, I have not.

Logistics, thoughts of fear, adventure, unspoken mystic

even when i speak, i am a forgotten lily in the field, withering inside

so ill fly away for now and come back when you’re ready

freedom cometh only when you let yourself be free

She once fought blood and gore on the battlefield. Who can know her story?

A man once laid in bed for 8 years, a wife feeding and mending.

She died of disease. Grief.

Daughter, daughter, daughter you were only in your 20s. You lived on. Onto

lands of mafia, blues, piano sounds tinkling, german poetry, silence again.

Stop this history.

Stop this history.

Start with me.

I’m currently reading a book called The Good Woman of China, stories about, I feel the suffering of women during mostly the cultural revolution. This quote really struck me:

“Jingyi said hat women were like water and men like mountains- was this a valid comparison? I put this question to my listeners, and received almost two hundred replies in a week. Of these, more than ten came from my colleagues. Big Li wrote, ‘Chinese men need women in order to form a picture of themselves- as mountains are reflected in streams. But streams flow from the mountains. Where then is the true picture?'”

I find this to be sad- personally I have a pretty skewed view of males, chinese males to be specific that I will not speak of in my public blog. However, I do not put my hope in human beings anyway, we fail each other constantly, it is human. We just gotta roll with the punches and believe in a God who can transform rags.

Found this Japanese streetwear. I love her vibe, but wonder if adults will ever take her seriously. I still love it though.

I cant stop thinking about why some people are born certain individuals and why i was born so unique. Its hard to accept my path I guess…is it pride or inadequacy? Maybe it’s fear, or maybe it’s sympathy for others, or maybe it’s envy? Or maybe it’s all. I can’t wrap my head around this.

I will forever grapple for it. Or have simple faith that there is a purpose for everything. Sometimes I wish I could be okay with settling, with being complacent…but after 10 seconds I change my mind and take it back God. I wouldn’t want to be anyone else.

I wouldn’t want to walk any other path. Though I am walking towards the unknown, my God is bigger than my small fears. Though I can’t see the good things that will come about, the wonders of new culture and change, right now, all I can think about is the friends and family I’m leaving behind.

Random Clip from Magic 2010 Feb:

Faded voices, unable to speak. Instruments banging on my head, frustration convulsing.

Nobody raises your voices. Just another night to stare deep into the moon. It only takes one moment…that reminds you

of your inadequacy, the pain subsiding and convulsing, reminding you of things you don’t want to remember. A missing link, an absent aroma that never showered confetti upon a cherished heart.

Nobody raise your voices, I’m just another hollowed being. I cant speak enough, the words aren’t good enough. So i just stare a little harder, hoping that face to face, we will face pain. Rain showers. Shutters, flashes, shoes, curtains, watches, i remember you by the watch. This shop was gone long ago. We shut it down, one by one.

I’ve gambled away all my thoughts, hoping these seed scattered grows one day. Into flourishing greens. Birds can sing and flowers can dance. Until then, let me laugh a little and let go of this inhibition that binds me. Society, at its best. I’m choosing to sing down Colorado, with my umbrella held high, melodies only i can understand. Catching in the wind. She smiles at me.

Maniac. Nobody raise their voices when they’re alone. I’ve listened to this song a hundred times and walked this rugged path a million. Singing when I can’t. Bloody with wounds of despair and pain. Too deep to understand myself. Faces, ugly momentums of cars, rain, and blood. Bring me hope when I can’t. Every time I drink in this experience, I am reminded I have one hope. And then i can laugh again.