Soc-Anth Course 3006: Summer in China 2007 A four-week student field experience You can be a part of it!

This program offers students a unique opportunity to see and learn Chinese culture and society first hand. During our three week tour of China, we will visit all major sites/cities concerning Chinese history, arts, cultural tradition, current education and political systems, and economic reform.

Course Description
2005 Schedule: an example
Contact Information

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Course Description:

The class is a four-week (one week in Jackson and three weeks in China) intensive study of China which introduces students to both traditional and contemporary Chinese culture and society. The course is multi-disciplinary with readings in archaeology, arts, history, sociology, and education.

The site visits to the Tomb of the First Emperor of Qin and his Terra Cotta Soldiers, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall of China, and Tiananmen Square will help students link present-day China with its past and better understand today's China, particularly its political system, through the investigation of China's feudal and imperial roots. By observing traditional Chinese architecture, arts, and village life, our visits to Suzhou (a world heritage site famous for its private gentry homes with traditional gardens) and Zhou-zhuang (a 900-year-old village in southern China famous for its intellectuals and entrepreneurs during the imperial era) will help students understand the characteristics of Chinese culture and national character, and see how these characteristics have influenced the economic development in China today. The interaction between cultural tradition and modern economy is further examined by our visits to various schools in Wuhan. These visits, which include a foreign language school (grades 1 to 12) and two universities, will introduce students to China's educational system. The class visits and discussions (with school administrators, teachers and students) will be opportunities for the students to explore why public education (particularly at the elementary and high school levels) is so successful in China and to see the impact of the one-child-per-family policy on China's educational system and children's academic achievement. In Wuhan, the class will visit a former state farm where Dr. Tsui (a native of China and Millsaps instructor for this course) once worked. This visit is for the students to see rural poverty and the development gap between urban and rural areas, which are common, serious problems facing China and many developing countries today. Finally, we explore the issues related to economic reform in China: its positive and negative impact on people, natural environment, and traditional culture. The site visits include the economic development zone in Wuhan, the Three-Gorges- Dam construction site, the cities and archaeological sites on the Yangtze River that will be inundated after the completion of the dam in 2009, and the city of Zhang-jia-gang, a poor-village-turned-modern-city that was built with money from village industry. The purpose of these visits is for students to see and think about and question the complex relationships among population growth, economic development, and environmental preservation.