Summer in China
Dates: May 20-June 20, 2013
Costs: $5600 plus airfare, subject to BOV approval
Eligibility
Any current student in good standing with an accredited university is eligible to apply. VMI students need only submit an application. Applicants from other universities should include a faculty letter of recommendation, an official transcript, and a short essay outlining the applicant's personal and academic goals for the program, along with the application. Applications must be received no later than 1 March 2013.
Program Description
Students will travel across China with two VMI professors and a
representative from CET, a well-respected education and study-abroad program.
The program begins in Beijing, where students will view various museums, historical
areas, and art sites to complement their coursework. In addition, there
are planned excursions to notable places such as the Forbidden City and the
Great Wall. After a week, the program moves briefly to Luoyang, where the
group will view the 1,500 year-old Longmen Grottoes, and on to Xi'an, near the
site of the famous Terra Cotta Army. The tour proceeds on to Nanjing, to
visit the solemn Memorials to Sun Yat-sen and the Nanjing Massacre, and to
Hangzhou, to see the famous West Lake. Finally, the program finishes with
a week's stay in Shanghai, the exciting beacon of China's economic development.
Room, Board, and Travel
Hotel rooms are covered by the cost of the program. Each
student will share a room with one other student. Aside from two large
banquets, students will be responsible for buying their own food while in
country. Travel within China will take place by train and is included in the
cost of the program. Travel from the United States to China is a separate cost.
Program Directors
MAJ Howard Sanborn is in his fifth year as Assistant Professor of
International Studies and Political Science at VMI. He received his Ph.D.
in political science, with a focus on the comparative politics of East Asia,
from the University of Iowa in 2009. He has spent several months in Asia
over the past few years and last took VMI cadets to China in 2010.
Dr. Jenny Ramirez is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English and Fine Arts. She is currently in her third year at VMI. Dr. Ramirez received her doctorate from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2003. She teaches a wide range of art history courses with areas of specialty in the history of photography and the arts of Asia.
Academic and Cultural Program
Students will take six credits of fine arts and international
studies credit. These classes will include:
Course: FA 380: Art and Power in Imperial China
Beginning with the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi (3rd
century BC), and ending with Puyi, the Last Emperor(early 20th century),
imperial leadership, derived from the “Mandate of Heaven,” has dominated the
culture and history of traditional China. This course explores how imperial
power has been expressed through the centuries in the art and architecture of
the Middle Kingdom. Meaning, materials, form, context, and symbolism will
be studied and understood as reflections of the divine right of the emperor or
empress to rule. Such artworks and architectural sites as the Forbidden
City, the Temple of Heaven, the Great Wall, the Terra Cotta Army, and the
Buddhist sculptures at Longmen will be thoroughly studied as objects of
imperial patronage, power, and authority.
Course: IS 375: Political and Economic Reform in Contemporary
China
This course presents cadets with an overview of the major reforms
enacted in the post-Mao era China. Starting with a discussion of Deng
Xiaoping's rise to power, students will learn of the liberal policies that
fostered the dramatic growth of China's economy well into the 21st century.
Also, students will discuss the popular desire for democracy and the failed
attempts at establishing a more politically accountable government.
Prominent in these readings and lectures will be the case of Shanghai, which
Communist party leaders determined to be the lead city in this capitalist
makeover. From its decadent, diverse past, through the stagnation of the
Mao era, to its current position as world metropolis, Shanghai provides a
front-line case study of the successes and failures during China's evolution
into a world power.