Teaching China Workshop
A Workshop for College and University
Instructors
February 13-15, 2003
Co-sponsored by the East-West
Center, Asian Studies Development Program,
and the UCA Humanities and World
Cultures Institute
Although designed primarily for faculty trained in the traditional fields of Anglo-European studies who are called upon to develop units on Asian civilization in their general education courses, this workshop was designed to be of use to any college- or university-level teacher engaged by the particular complexities of Chinese culture or more generally interested in comparative cultural studies. Participants received a two-day immersion in Chinese thought, history, religion, art and literature. Group discussion periods focused upon developing successful pedagogy, and presenters were available during breakfast and luncheon breaks for informal consultation with individuals.
SCHEDULE
Thursday, 13 February (8-10 p.m.) Reception
Friday, 14 February (Student Center Ballroom)
8.30 a.m. Registration and Continental Breakfast
9.00 a.m. Welcome and Introductions
9.15-11.30 a.m. Roger Ames (U of Hawai’i), "Daoism and Creativity: Making This Life Significant"
12-12.45 p.m. Lunch
1.00-2.45 p.m. Richard J. Smith (Rice U), "Chinese Ways of World-Making: The Yin-yang Paradigm and Its Cultural Implications"
2.45-3.00 Break
3.00- 4.45 p.m. Peter Hershock (Asian Studies Development Program, East-West Center), "Crisis Intervention: Enlightenment and Education in Early Chan Buddhism"
Saturday, 15 February (Student Center Ballroom)
9 a.m. Continental Breakfast
9.30-11.30 a.m. Stanley Murashige (School of the Art Institute of Chicago), "Rhythm, Change, and Nature in Chinese Painting and Calligraphy"
11.45-12.45 Lunch
1-3 p.m. Michelle Yeh (U of California, Davis), "Poetry and Chinese Culture"
3-3.15 p.m. Break
3.15-4.30 p.m. Betty Buck (U of Hawai’i), moderator, "Teaching China to American Undergraduates: A Panel Discussion"
PRESENTERS
Roger T. Ames is professor of philosophy at the University of Hawai’i and editor of Philosophy East & West. His recent publications include translations of Chinese classics: Sun-tzu: The Art of Warfare; Focusing the Familiar: A Translation and Philosophical Interpretation of the Zhongyong; Sun Pin: The Art of Warfare (with D. C. Lau); Tracing Dao to Its Sources (with D. C. Lau); the Confucian Analects (with H. Rosemont); and A Philosophical Translation of the Daodejing: Making This Life Significant (with D. L. Hall). He has also co-authored with D. L. Hall three interpretive studies of Chinese philosophy and culture: Thinking through Confucius; Anticipating China: Thinking Through the Narratives of Chinese and Western Culture; and Thinking from the Han: Self, Truth, and Transcendence in Chinese and Western Culture. He has recently undertaken several projects that entail the intersection of contemporary issues and cultural understanding. His Democracy of the Dead: Dewey, Confucius, and the Hope for Democracy in China, with D. L. Hall, is a product of this effort.
Peter Hershock (B.A., Yale U; Ph.D., University of Hawai’i) is Coordinator of Summer and Outreach Programs of the Asian Studies Development Program at the East-West Center. His recent research has focused on applying Buddhist conceptual and critical resources in addressing contemporary issues, including technology and development, human rights, social activism, and the role of normative values in international relations. His publications include Liberating Intimacy: Enlightenment and Social Virtuosity in Ch’an Buddhism and Reinventing the Wheel: A Buddhist Response to the Information Age. Forthcoming are an edited volume titled "Technology and Cultural Values on the Edge of the Third Millennium" and a monograph titled "Chan Buddhism: A Chinese Transformation of the Middle Way."
Stanley Murashige (Ph.D., University of Chicago) has just completed a four-year term as chair of the Dept. of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses on Asian art and theory, Chinese art and aesthetics, and cross-cultural issues East and West. A specialist in Chinese landscape painting, he previously taught at Michigan State University.
Richard J. Smith is George and Nancy Rupp Professor of Humanities, Professor of History, Director of Asian Studies, and Director of Asian Outreach at Rice University. He is also a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and an advisor to the National Commission on Asia in the Schools. A specialist in modern Chinese history and traditional Chinese culture, he has won twelve teaching awards. His books include Mercenaries and Mandarins; Traditional Chinese Culture; Fortune-tellers and Philosophers; Chinese Almanacs; China’s Cultural Heritage; and Chinese Maps, in addition to five co-edited or co-authored volumes: Chinese Walled Cities; Entering China’s Service; Robert Hart and China’s Early Modernization; Cosmology, Ontology, and Human Efficacy; and H. B. Morse, Customs Commissioner and Historian of China. He is currently working on two books, one on the "globalization" of the Yijing (I-ching or Book of Changes), and the other on traditional Chinese ritual.
Michelle Yeh (Ph.D., University of Southern California) was born in Taiwan, graduated from the National Taiwan University, and is currently Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California- Davis, Co-director of the Pacific Regional Humanities Center at UC-Davis, and Chair of the UC Pacific Rim Research Program. Her publications include Modern Chinese Poetry: Theory and Practice since 1917; Anthology of Modern Chinese Poetry; No Trace of the Gardener: Poems of Yang Mu; and Frontier Taiwan: An Anthology of Modern Chinese Poetry.
To view photos of the workshop events, click here.