Postcards from Asia

2008-10-30T05:45:00.000-07:00

The Lampang College of Commerce & Technology: Pictured above (l-r) are Dr. Korawik Pornnimit, President of the Lampang College of Commerce and Technology, William Madden, Coordinator 2009 USG Faculty Seminar to Thailand, and Dr. Chakkapan Pornnimit, Vice-President, Lampang Inter-tech College.

During my visit to Thailand in March of 2009, I especially enjoyed meeting Dr. Korawik Pornnimit and Dr. Chakkapan Pornnimit, currently serving as President and Vice President of Lampang College of Commerce and Technology and its satellite campus in Bangkok. Korawik and Pornnimit were kind enough to host me for a delightful dinner at Bangkok's Royal River Hotel, where we discussed the possibility of bringing our USG faculty group to visit Lampang in May of 2009.

Lampang (Thai ลำปาง) is one of the northern provinces (changwat) of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are (from north clockwise) Chiang Rai, Phayao, Phrae, Sukhothai, Tak, Lamphun and Chiang Mai. As described in its Wikipedia entry, "Lampang, also called "meuang rot ma" in Thai, meaning "Horse Carriage City", is considered by some Thais as the last paradise in Thailand. It is located about 100 km to the southeast of Chiang Mai. Although well-connected by rail, and 4-lane highways to both Bangkok and Chiang Mai, it is here that tourists can still find the horse-drawn carriages in regular use for transportation. This, together with the relative lack of skyscrapers that have contaminated Chiang Mai's skyline of late, make Lampang an increasingly favored setting for period drama. One account attributes the horse-drawn carriage to the Portuguese, via Macau, although a more likely origin is colonial Burma—Lampang was an important center of timber industry in the early 20th century and saw an influx of migrants from British-controlled Burma. The horse-drawn carriage is one of the most memorable symbols of Lampang, as reflected in many traditional products."

Besides the traditional rice paddy farming, pineapple, and sugarcane constitute major food crops. Lampang has a large deposit of lignite in Mae Moh district, and hosted several coal-fired electricity generating plants [. . .] Lampang also has a large deposit of kaolin which is widely utilized in the ceramics industry. Historically, logging was an important industry, since Lampang, together with nearby Phrae had a large stand of teak. Many elephants were employed to transport the logs to the river for transport to Bangkok, hence a founding of the 'Elephant School', the predecessor of the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. Much of the old growth teak stands in Lampang have been thoroughly harvested.

2008-10-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

Thailand Reflections: Me at the Annual Chula-Thammasat Football Match, January 1991:

Can you find the "farang" in the photograph? This a funny photograph of me attending the famous annual Chula-Thammasat Football Match (January 1991), representing the fierce rivalry in soccer between Bangkok's two most prestigious Universities, the venerable Chulalongkorn University and the renowned Thammasat University. This football match took place during January of 1991, an "interesting" year because the Persian Gulf War was in full swing and Americans had been advised by our embassy not to go out in public. But my Thai friends said not to worry, that one American wouldn't get terrorized in a crowd of so many friendly Thai faces, so we went to the ballgame anyway and had a really good time. Shortly after this ballgame, there was also a Thai military coup (a bloodless one, thanfully), led by General Suchinda Kraprayoon, deposing then Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan who was famous for dismissing criticisms and critics of his policies with the phrase, "Mai mii ban haa!" or "No problem!" A very useful Thai phrase that I still use to respond to my own critics.

2008-10-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

Faculty of Economics (E.B.A. Program), Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok Thailand:

(pictured l-r are: Dr. Yong Yoon, Vice-Chairman Dr. Thawatchai Jittrapanun, Chairman Dr. Teerana Bhongmakapat, Prof. William Madden (USG Asia Council), Vice-Chairman Dr. Paitoon Kraipornsak, and Vice Chairman Dr. Thomya Wangcharoen.

On Wedneday, March 5th 2008, I had the delightful experience of being hosted for a luncheon by the Faculty of Economics (Bachelor of Arts Program in Economics) at Thailand's prestigious Chulalongkorn University. The E.B.A. faculty graciously agreed to provide some lectures for our group from the University System of Georgia during our faculty development seminar to Thailand, May 15-June 1, 2009, sponsored by the Asia Council of the University System of Georgia. Our faculty group will visit Chulalongkorn University and hear lectures from the E.B.A. faculty on Monday, May 18, 2009.

I really enjoyed my luncheon with this dynamic and hospitable group of faculty and enjoyed discussing many topics with them, including the Thai economy and U.S. politics. I wish to express my thanks to them for agreeing to host our group in May 2009 and also my thanks to Dr. Jonathan Leightner of Augusta State University for introducing me to them.

2008-08-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

2009 University System of Georgia Faculty Development Seminar to Thailand: Thailand is the destination for the 2009 faculty seminar abroad sponsored by The Asia Council of the University System of Georgia. Themes of the Thailand seminar, which will take place from May 14^th-June 1 2009, include criminal justice, social justice, business, technology, and sustainable development. The seminar will spend one week in Bangkok and a second week in the developing cities of the north and the Thai-Myanmar border region. GPC’s William Madden (Dunwoody Humanities), who previously lived and taught in Thailand (1990-1992) and provided assistance to Burmese refugees there, is serving as organizer and leader of the Thailand seminar. Participation is limited to 12 faculty members from across the University System, and the cost of the seminar is $3025.00 per faculty member. GPC faculty are encouraged to apply both for the seminar and for the available Chancellor’s Award travel grants. Please contact William for more information at: william.madden@gpc.edu.

In preparation for the seminar, William made a site visit to Thailand from Feb. 22 to March 10^thof 2008. William is pictured above with Special Colonel Preecha Thimamontri, Director of the Counter-terrorism Task Force, Criminal Investigation Division, Bangkok Metropolitan Police Bureau.

2008-04-17T07:51:00.000-07:00

Palaung Boy in Yellow Coat

Thai-Burma border area 2/25/08

2008-04-17T07:06:00.000-07:00

UHDP Site Visit and Volunteer Experience: Our Adobe Construction Experiment: In the photos above, you can see 1) me and Apat preparing the mud, 2) my wife, Leslie, with Apat, treading the mud, 3) Banchai inspecting the partially constructed adobe house, and 4) the nearly completed adobe house with thatched roof.

During our first several days at the Thailand UHDP, my wife Leslie and I worked on two construction projects. The first was mixing, pouring, and finishing concrete to serve as foundations for two new water tanks which are located on a hill above the UHDP site to facilitate water flow to the UHDP's various buildings and residences. The project that we spent the most time on, however, was the mixing of mud to make bricks for a small adobe house. Constructing the small adobe house gives the UHDP staff an opportunity to experiment in adobe construction techniques on a small scale in anticipation of the construction of a full-size adobe guesthouse later on this year. To build the small adobe house, we spent several hours mixing and preparing the mud, pouring the mud into molds to make bricks, and using the finished brick to construct the adobe house. As organizer and leader of the University System of Georgia's 2009 Faculty Seminar to Thailand, I will be bringing a group of 12 faculty to the UHDP to learn about the UHDP, do a service project, and spend a night in a hilltribe village.

2008-04-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

Rick Burnette, UHDP Director, explains upland agriculture.

My Return to the Thailand UHDP: From February 22 to March 10th, I traveled to Thailand, the beautiful country where I had spent two years teaching English from 1990-1992. I spent the first week doing volunteer work and visiting with old friends at the Thailand Upland Holistic Development Project http://www.uhdp.org/, a community based, agricultural and educational extension project aimed at improving the quality of life of Thailand’s Palaung hilltribe. This marks my fifth visit to Thailand and my third visit to the UHDP in the last six years. On previous visits and this one as well, I recruited Thai friends from Bangkok to serve as translators for American doctors and other volunteers from Atlanta, Georgia who travel to Thailand bi-ennially to do medical clinics in Palaung villages. Working with the UHDP over these many years, I have especially enjoyed getting to know Rick Burnette, the UHDP's director, who grew up in Franklin NC, not far from my hometown of Elberton GA.

2007-06-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

GPC in China--Does China Have a Middle Class?: 10 or 15 years ago, guys like the watermelon man in the photo to the right were much more common. Now they have to compete with more cars, buses, scooters, and even roller-bladers. China definitely looks different and by different I mean more prosperous. All of the young people wear jeans, which used to be too expensive, and almost everyone seems to have cellphone. But does that mean that China is growing a middle-class in the way we think of a middle-class? The answer, I'm finding, seems to be, "No." According to Arthur Kroeber of Dragonomics Research and editor of China Economic Review (see May 2007 issue), the growth that China has seen has resulted from a combination of foreign investment and exports. To sustain growth China needs its own people to become consumers. But when you look at incomes and living costs, what you find is that only about 125 million out of the total populations have significant disposable income. And they are limited by opportunity costs as well, for if they buy a car, it may be years before they can save enough money to buy anything else, such as a major appliance or computer. Also, these 125 million or so Chinese consumers are concentrated in 3 zones: Beijing-Tianjin, Guangzhou, and Shanghai-Hangzhou. Those three urban centers are as far apart from each other as some European capitals, creating real challenges for foreign companies that want to set up distribution centers to serve these far-flung cities. Estimates on how quicky China can grow a consumer class vary, with the most conservative suggesting a possible 300 million consumers by 2015. This week I had an interesting conversation with a bright young journalism major, let's call him "Itchy," who recently finished internships with both Xinhua News Agency in Beijing and the prestigious Wenhui Daily in Shanghai. Itchy also thinks that China doesn't have a true middle-class and he thinks it could be 50-100 years before it really gets one. Of course, these facts are not all bad for U.S. businesses and other foreign companies that want to do business in China. Such realities may burst our China bubble but prompt a more strategic focus on various trends and issues that shape emerging markets here. For example, financial services, is one area that seems to be doing well, with both Chinese banks and foreign banks, such as Citigroup, expanding their range of services as they try to discover niches that reflect consumer wants and needs. Fueling domestic spending through the availability cheap credit!--That sounds more like the American Way than Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, don't you think?!

2007-06-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

GPC in China: Nanjing by Night, Part II: At about 1:30am, I was getting ready to shoot some generic street scenes on Ninghai Road in front of our campus when this young man came walking by. He expressed an interest in what I was doing, and I offered to shoot his portrait, and he agreed. I did five or six shots with him and it all took less than five minutes. I liked this one the best since, as you can see, he has undeniable charisma. Afterward, I gave him my blog address so he could view the photo when he gets back to his own country (he sounded American). I wish that I had written down his name because afterward, I was so focused on getting all of my equipment gathered, I forgot his name. I think I will start keeping a journal to record the names of the persons who pose for my street photography. Anyway, friend, thanks for posing for this portrait. When you do finally view your portrait, please email me and I'll update this blog entry to include your name if you want. Best, William.

2007-06-19T17:32:00.000-07:00

GPC in China--Nanjing by Night, Part I: Friends of mine know I'm a fan of the Rumanian emigre photographer Brassai, who shot night scenes of Paris in the '30's. Last night came the biggest rain we've had since arriving in Nanjing. I'm a bit of a night-owl and couldn't resist going out to try and snap a few shots of Nanjing's glistening streets. The little cobblestone alleyway in the photo to the left isn't as foreboding as it looks. It's just around the corner from my dorm and a stone's throw from Ninghai Road that runs in front of our campus. At 1am I was wrestling a tripod, fiddling with shutter speeds, doing manual focus in the half-dark, fighting foggy lenses, and dodging the occasional lone midnight motor scooter rider until I got the shot that I liked. Wherever you are out there, Brassai, are you proud of me? (Photos on this blog are clickable if you wish to view them in a large format).

2007-06-19T01:35:00.000-07:00

GPC in China--The Private Gardens of Suzhou: I snapped this picture of some little manmade waterfalls in the private garden called the Canglang Pavilion in Suzhou. Although, I preferred the forested trails of the hills outside of Hang Zhou, I think I would have enjoyed the elaborate private gardens of Suzhou more if they had not been so crowded. I guess the problem is that the private gardens are no longer private! After returning from Suzhou, I found a funny old verse by the Song Dynasty poet Ye Shaoweng, entitled, "On Getting No Admittance to a Private Garden":

Most likely, he hates visitors' clog-spikes leaving prints on the green moss;
No response is made to my prolonged tapping at the wicker door.
But how can the splendor of springtime in a garden be enclosed?
A twig of red apricot flowers peeps out over the wall.

2007-06-19T01:08:00.000-07:00

GPC in China--Han Shan Temple, Part II: During our visit to Han Shan Temple in Suzhou several weeks ago, I snapped this photo of a Buddhist nun. Even though I took the pic before I'd learned to use the continuous-servo focus feature on the camera I was using, and it came out a bit blurred, I still liked it because the the nun looked so serene. Of the many schools of Buddhism, only Chan survives as a vibrant practice (the famous Shao Lin Temple monks are Chan). Chan was somewhat counter-cultural in its orientation and did not benefit from state-sponsorship in the early dynasties, and so, to its benefit, it did not suffer but instead flourished when those dynasties fell. Unlike other forms of Buddhist practice which were textually focused, Chan emphasized the importance of teacher-disciple relationships and active, joyful participation in society. Chan traditions tell of Chinese "homegrown" Buddhist teachers, such as Hongren and Huineng, whose combination of humor and insight challenged their students to consider how the Buddha's teaching applied to their existing situations. The Chinese Chan Buddhists trace their lineage all the way to the historical Buddha through Bodhidharma to one of the Buddha's favorite disciples, Mahakasyapa. The story is told of how the Buddha once appeared to preach before a large crowd, but instead of preaching, simply held up flower instead. Mahakasyapa was the first person to smile at this, and the Buddha said that Mahakasyapa had understood his sermon the best. Judging from her beautiful smile, it looks like the nun in the photograph above understood the lesson, too. (Thanks to the East-West Center's Peter Hershock and his excellent book for introducing me to Chan Buddhism).

2007-06-19T00:37:00.000-07:00

GPC in China--Counting Down the Days! I snapped this photo of a man and woman involved in some kind of intense discussion on a market street in Suzhou. I'm still curious to know what they were fussing about, but it's more fun to imagine. Relationships have been an interesting subject here in China. Chinese people have asked us if we know about the one-child policy, but haven't expressed any criticisms of it. I've made one good Chinese friend whose parents divorced early and who grew up in a step-family. Another new Chinese friend just broke up with his girlfriend because she wants to stay in Nanjing and he wants to live and work in Beijing. Based on conversations we've had with various Chinese divorced persons or children of divorce, it appears that what I'd read about previously is true: that divorce and its consequences are more common here. Yet, still on every radio station, Chinese pop songs weave the dream of a shared romance, and on the shores of Hang Zhou's West Lake, between the peacock pen and the tidal basin, we stumbled up on a plump Chinese lady bedecked in a Western-style white bridal gown, posing for a photographer in anticipation of a "white wedding" that is becoming more and more popular here.

2007-06-14T00:56:00.000-07:00

GPC in China: Trip to Hang Zhou Part V: Next time I come back to China, I want to do an entire photo series on Chinese people and their ice-cream. Of course, people everywhere love ice-cream, but the Chinese--young and old--seem to really love their ice cream. When I took this photo, I had originally planned to photograph this girl and her mother eating ice-cream together, but her mother and I got to talking together and she told me that she was an alumnus of Nanjing Normal University (the school where I and our GPC students are studying). She then introduced me to her parents (the little girl's grandparents) and the whole family gathered around and encouraged this little girl to pose for her own photograph, which she bravely did. Next I'd like to photograph some senior adults with their ice-cream. Some of them look just as happy and just as funny.

2007-06-14T00:41:00.000-07:00

GPC in China--Trip to Hang Zhou Part IV: Some of the most fun we had in Hang Zhou was in an outdoor market on Riverboat Street that really had a carnival-like atmosophere. There were people in costume walking about, magicians, musicians, an inflatable moonwalk for the kids, and people eating ice-cream everywhere. Everybody on Riverboat Street was having a good time, especially kids. After dining on a tasty lunch of beef noodle soup (very much like the Vietnamese "pho" that we enjoy in the U.S.), we went next door to the Dairy Queen for a smoothie. I really enjoyed talking with these two sweet but goofy guys that made my strawberrry smoothie at the DQ.

2007-06-14T00:28:00.000-07:00

GPC in China: Trip to Hang Zhou Part III: The photo to the left was taken on one of Hang Zhou's many truly delightful forested trails, this one in particular called "The Tiger Spring Path." The ancient story tells how some Buddhist monks planned to build a temple on this forested hillside. In preparation for construction of the temple, they began to dig a well, but after much effort found no water, and then decided to abandon their plans. Before leaving, one of the monks took a nap beside the well that they had been digging and had a dream in which two tigers visited him and caused water to spring up from the well. According to the legend, when the monk awoke, there was, indeed, water flowing from the well. The temple was built, and rest, as they say, is history. I enjoyed the real solitude of the meandering, forested trails and rustic pagodas of Hang Zhou more than the crowded, miniaturized, and manicured gardens of SuZhou.

2007-06-13T23:59:00.000-07:00

GPC in China--Trip to Hang Zhou Part II: The photo to the left is the skyline of Hang Zhou taken from my room on the 13th floor of the Jian Feng Guest House. We thought it was funny that the hotels here have a 13th floor, but we didn't have any bad luck on our trip to Hang Zhou. When I first looked at the neon sign for our hotel, it looked to me as if its name meant "Wind of Construction." That would have been an apt moniker, considering all of the highways, highrises, condos, and overpasses that were under construction as far as the eye could see in Hang Zhou. In his critical study, S/Z, Roland Barthes explores the cultural relativity of concepts of beauty and exposes their arbitrary nature from an epistemological point-of-view. My experiences talking with Chinese people about Hang Zhou have suggested the extent to which beauty is a cultural construct, not necessarily grounded in an objective reality. Case in point: After I returned from Hang Zhou, many Chinese people asked me, "Wasn't it beautiful?" and if I had answered honestly, on the whole, I would have had to say, "No." But when I asked these same people if they had ever been to Hang Zhou, most of them also said, "No."This made me wonder why they thought Hang Zhou was beautiful if they had never been there themselves. When I inquired further about this, I learned that most of what they conceive to be the beauty of Hang Zhou is found in the poetry written about Hang Zhou in the pre-modern period. The world of Hang Zhou--of the poets and painters who lived, loved, and created art beside Hang Zhou's famous West Lake--still exists in the minds of Chinese people the way that, say, Shakespeare's London exists in the minds of Anglophiles. Modern Hang Zhou is an unfinished work--I'd like to come back and see how it is in 5 or 10 years. In it's current state, it is not nearly as green as the other cities we've visited--Beijing, Zhen Jiang, Nanjing, and SuZhou--that is, until you get outside of the city. Out on the periphery, the West Lake and the forested hills surrounding the city offer more than a hint of the ghosts of Hang Zhou's poetic past. But when you are in the in city center, they seem quite hidden away.

2007-06-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

GPC in China--Hang Zhou Tour: This weekend, our group is in Hang Zhou for a two-and-half day tour. There is an old saying in China that, "In heaven you have paradise, and on earth, Hang Zhou and Su Zhou. After our charming tour of Su Zhou last weekend, I was a little thrown when we arrived in Hang Zhou only to be greeted by the worst rush hour traffic in memory, threading through mile after mile of scaffolding and in-progress construction of various overpasses and causeways, etc. It was construction on a scale like I've never seen in America--like Spaghetti Junction to the 10th power on acid. Where was the famously charming Hang Zhou, I wondered? Turns out that Hang Zhou is two cities in one--the concrete jungle at the center and a treasure trove of gorgeous and serene lakeside parks, gardens, and tea plantations around its perimeter. It's bizarre that these two completely incongruous environments are within such close driving distance of each other. In the photo above, a group of tourists gather under a tree beside Hang Zhou's renowned West Lake. More on Hang Zhou in my next posts...

2007-06-09T07:16:00.000-07:00

Our visit to NNU's satellite campus, part II: After we had dinner with the NNU students, our GPC students were invited to do a panel session for them. The auditorium was full of two or three hundred Chinese undergraduates, and they were all encouraged to ask our students questions about American life and our impressions of China. This was a really fun night! The atmosphere was very informal and the Chinese students had a really good time asking us their questions (in very good English, I might add) and laughing at some of our students' replies. On this trip to China, I've been hearing a Chinese word that I've never heard on previous trips--"sui bian." It means "informal" or "casual" and several times, when asking a Chinese person what I should do in a certain situation, they have replied with a smile, "sui bian!" In spite of the apparent censorship of my blog here, I'm impressed with this new "sui bian" (i.e. casual) attitude in China, and I hope that it is the spirit of "sui bian" that catches on here. It certainly seemed to prevail on our fun and very free-wheeling panel session with NNU students.

2007-06-09T06:50:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday evening, our GPC group was invited to spend some time with students from Nanjing Normal University's satellite campus, a very new and modern looking development about 30 minutes outside of Nanjing. We watched some Chinese guys shoot baskets while conversing with our hosts, mostly students studying to prepare themselves to teach Chinese-as-a second-language in foreign countries. They told us of the predicament of some of their classmates who have justrecently travelled to Thailand to teach Chinese in Thai primary schools. The Chinese student-teachers were distressed to find that their upcountry Thai pupils spoke no English, leaving them without any common language of communication--a challenge they were not expecting. I had fun watching the Chinese guys in the photo to the left play ball. The guy in the yellow shirt was the shortest, so he played the hardest. It was good sportsmanship and good drama as well.

2007-06-09T06:42:00.000-07:00

Hi friends! I was disappointed to discover this week that it appears that China is censoring my blog (and all other foreign blogs hosted by blogspot that I have tried to access so far). I was surprised and saddened by this because my blog seems innocuous enough. I hope it will only be temporary. Anyway, as you can see, I've found a way around this, sort of. I can post, but I just can't view my own blog here. More on this situation as it evolves. The photo to the left was taken in SuZhou last weekend. I really enjoyed listening to these three perform traditional music and snapped this photo while they took a break. This photo was taken in the neihborhood they call Zhou Zuang--the "water town" of SuZhou. (The photos on this blog are clickable if you'd enjoy viewing them in a larger size).

2007-06-04T21:22:00.000-07:00

While in Suzhou this past weekend, we visited the Cold Mountain Temple, named after the 7th century monk-poet Han Shan (his name means "Cold Mountain"). I was especially interested to visit this temple because ever since being introduced to Han Shan several years ago, I have enjoyed reading and re-reading his poems. As the reader learns, "Han Shan" or "Cold Mountain" is not actually a place as much as it is a state of mind. It's not that there is no actual Cold Mountain--there are several, but Han Shan's poems about climbing Cold Mountain are generally considered to be allegories of the path toward Enlightenment. They work as poems, however, because unlike, say, Wordsworth's reflections on Mt. Snowdon' in which the idealism of the poet is foregrounded, Han Shan's poems are vivid and even sensual (though in an uncanny sort of way), and the spiritual message is subliminally present in the landscape itself. The temple itself wasn't in very good repair and I didn't see any monks around, but I found myself drawn to the relationship between the two temple custodians pictured to the left. I like to imagine that the man in the picture is the face of the poet-monk Han Shan:

Wonderful this road to Cold Mountain--
Yet there's no sign of horse or carriage.
In winding valleys too torturous to trace,
On crags piled who knows how high,
A thousand different grasses weep with dew
And pines hum together in the wind.
Now it is, that straying from the path,
You ask your shadow, "What way from here?"
--Han Shan

2007-06-04T03:56:00.000-07:00

GPC in Nanjing: Week 2: Will staying in China for more than a week make you crazy? The answer must be, "Yes!" After a week of non-stop, whirlwind touring in Beijing, all of us experienced a little bit of belated culture stress after getting settled into Nanjing and decompressing a little. All of the telltale signs were there. You know what I mean--the late night runs to the McDonalds near our campus; eating a second or third chocolate sundae just because you can; paying your taxi driver too much to drive you to Nanjing's Pizza Hut, even though it's way on the other side of town. And there are those unwished for little surprises--like how what looks like an Egg McMuffin on the menu here has no Canadian bacon on it, but lots (and I mean lots!) of ketchup and mayo. In the photo to the left is Monique Artis, a first-year student of Chinese who is on this trip with her twin sister, Heather. Stephanie Wallace, another student on our trip, had fun fitting "Mo" into her red, hoody, custom-made-in-China straight-jacket . Mo wants you all to know that she did not want this photo published, and she is not, NOT, crazy! Really!

2007-06-04T03:33:00.000-07:00

GPC in Nanjing: Week 2: This past weekend, we took a weekend-long tour to one of the southernmost cities in Jiangsu province--Suzhou.

Situated on the Grand Canal that connects Shanghai all the way to Beijing, Suzhou prospered early and by the time of the Yuan and Ming had a well-deserved reputation as a city of the arts, riches, and romance. Especially charming was the area called Zhou Zhuang, a "watertown" with houses and shops built along many little canals--like a little Bangkok--but in a very charming yet understated Chinese style. In the photo to the left, a young performer of Kun Qu (a forerunner of Beijing Opera, or "Jing Ju") prepares for his performance which was lively and which we enjoyed very much.

2007-06-04T03:18:00.000-07:00

GPC in Nanjing: Week 2: Last Thursday, we took a tour of the Zhong Shan scenic area on the northeast side of Nanjing. There are many impressive sites there, including an expansive and hauntingly beautiful memorial garden and an ancient Ming tomb/burial mound, now covered with a mysterious and misty canopy of rainforest. This photo to the left was taken just in front of the mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yat Sen (1866-1925), founder of the Republic of China. The more than 300 steps one must climb to reach the top are symbolic of China's population at the time of its construction--300 million. The photos on this blog are clickable if you want to see them in a larger size, which I especially recommend doing in this case if you want to get the feeling of being at Dr. Sun's burial site. Dr. Sun's mausoleum was one of the most beautiful and best kept up sites that we've visited, and though it was magisterial, it had a very intimate and human feeling about it as well, befitting the spirit of the noble man whom it was designed to honor.

2007-05-29T00:55:00.000-07:00

GPC in Nanjing: Day trip to Zheng Jiang: On this past Sunday afternoon, we took a half-day long trip to Zheng Jiang, about 1.5 hours south of Nanjing. Along with a Chan Buddhist temple, we toured the remnants of the palace complex of the Wu emperor. Ascending to the palace compound was quite pleasant. My friends who are reading this blog know that I always enjoy a good hike. The view of the Yang tze river from the portico at the top was definitely worth the climb up. In the old days, the palace sat in the middle of the river, but now the riverbed has moved, leaving the palace to one side. In the photo to the left, you can see Brian, Sean, and Andrew from our group along with our tour guide (in blue) and Prof. Sherry Cheng's daughter, Annie (in pink), also with us on this trip.

2007-05-29T00:22:00.000-07:00

GPC in Nanjing--Week 1 Day 2: Today was our second day of classes at Nanjing Normal University. I decided to take a Chinese class, took a placement test, and attended class just like our students. There are a few English speakers in my class--a couple of Africans and an American--and the rest are Koreans. I was placed into a level 4 class, and I was pleased at how well I held up. I had to pay very close attention and found the lessons both challenging and enjoyable, so I think the level of difficulty was about right. Incidentally, there's a McDonalds right outside our university's gate, but right across the street from the McD's is a great little shop that serves steaming rice bowls with all kinds of delicious meats and vegetables, such as the one that you see above. The rice bowls cost half of what they charge for a Big Mac combo, so I can eat healthy for less money. No wonder there isn't any obesity in China...yet.

2007-05-27T22:58:00.000-07:00

Nanjing day 1: Our group arrived in Nanjing by overnite train last Friday morning. The sleeper car was set up six persons to a compartment, but because the bottom-rung beds in all the compartments had been reserved for our group, we had to share our cabins with other Chinese people who occupied the upper bunks of each compartment. (Bottom-rung beds are considered more desirable because they also serve as seats at the window level, whereas persons who occupy higher bunks have to sit on fold-out seats built into the side of the train car if they want to sit down for tea or to look out the window). So we had to trade privacy for some convenience which some members of our group considered a bad trade. On the whole, I'd say that that deal is pretty typical of the China experience. More on our new life at Nanjing Normal University in my next entry...!

2007-05-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

Beijing Day 5: Here's a photo of our group taken in the Forbidden City on our last day in Beijing. The Forbidden City is a palace complex that has so many rooms that you could sleep in a different room every night for more than 20 years without sleeping in the same room twice (at least so we were told--I did not count them ; ) As you can see from the photo, I bleached my hair on a dare from some other guys in our group that did the same. Soon, I'll know if blondes really have more fun. I plan to have more fun either way.

2007-05-23T10:03:00.000-07:00

Beijing Day 3--The Great Wall: Yesterday was fun but kind of crazy, too. We took a long busride out to a place called Ba Da Ling, well-known for being the highest point on the Great Wall near Beijing. Heavy clouds had come in during the night, and we had heavy rains all the way out to the Wall. We had fun slipping and sliding up and down the Wall since it rained most of the time we were up there. We saw a funny mispelled sign that said, "Sleep slope: treading forward carefully." I love Chinglish!

2007-05-21T03:29:00.000-07:00

GPC in China: Day 2 (cont.): After Tiananmen Square, we drove to the Imperial Gardens that are on a hilltop that overlooks the Forbidden City. The gardens and the little mountain "Jing Shan" that lies within it were a nice change from the typical topography of Beijing (the city lies on a broad plain and is the landscape is quite flat). On the hilltop, we enjoyed some cool breezes, great views, and some fine ice-cream. About these two guys in the photo with me, I have really been enjoying getting to know Nicholas (on my right) and Brian (on my left). Nicholas is a cool hand, a pretty good Chinese speaker, and also knows his way around Bangkok--always a plus in my book. Brian is new to speaking Chinese, but his pronunciation is good, and he is a hit with the ladies here--I predict he will have a Chinese wife in the future!

2007-05-21T03:14:00.000-07:00

GPC in China: Day 2--Tiananmen Square: Today was just great! We started with a combination Chinese-style & American-style breakfast and then headed out to Tiananmen Square. We did some of the fun touristy stuff--bought Chairman Mao wristwatches, bargained for postcards, and practiced using our Chinese to buy cold Coca-colas. Of course, in Chinese, Coca-cola means, "taste good, feel happy!" Everything we ate tasted good today, and everybody was feeling pretty happy about that.

2007-05-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

GPC in China Day 1 (cont.): Last night after dinner, we walked around our neighborhood and had a chance to meet some families with kids playing in a nearby park. The kids had a lot of fun making pictures with us : )!

2007-05-20T14:49:00.001-07:00

GPC in Beijing Day 1 (cont.): Last night's dinner was one of the best of its kind that I've ever had. In this photo, you can see GPC students Monique, Heather, Nicholas, and Stephanie chowing down on the delicious Chinese fare. Along with staples such as egg fried rice and sweet and sour chicken, there were tasty dishes I'd never had including a spicy egg and tomato soup, and flavorful confab of fried squash, chickpeas, and sunflower seeds. More to come...!

2007-05-20T14:44:00.000-07:00

GPC's China Study Abroad: Day 1: Hi everyone! We touched down in Beijing yesterday afternoon about 3pm. The ride in from the airport really showcased some of the astonishing changes that are taking place here. First, I was very impressed with how green the city is now. There were many trees along almost every avenue and along the canal, which made for a particularly lovely sight. The greenery really makes for a much more relaxed atmosphere, and being in the city didn't feel stressful at all. We have a good hotel about 2.5 miles from Tiananmen Square. It's not too big, but very cozy with a friendly staff. Last night, we had the best welcome banquet that I've had yet on this sort of trip. I'll post pics and more details about the amazing food we had last night in my next posting. Today, it's off to the Forbidden City. The mood in our group is very good. Everyone really seems to be enjoying one another, and I haven't seen big signs of culture shock yet. More to come....

2007-02-04T18:30:00.000-08:00

Charlotte Sometimes: A Film by Eric Byler. After a break from this Asian-themed blog, I am glad to be back and to be able to say that the Asian-American literature course that I developed and taught as a graduate student at the University of Georgia was approved by my department chair to be taught as a special topics Asian-American literature course, so I am teaching it at GPC this term. In addition to reading various novels, we are watching some old and new Asian-American films as well. The next film we will be viewing in the course is Charlotte Sometimes, by director Eric Byler and starring Michael Idemoto, Jacqueline Kim, and Eugenia Yuan. Instead of posting in my web-course, I have asked my students to post their reactions to the film on this blog, so as the posts come in, read and enjoy.

2006-07-17T22:37:00.000-07:00

The Human Tradition in Pre-modern China. Here's a recent addition to my bookshelf. Curious about Shang Dynasty oracle bones, women warriors, Taoist divination practices, T'ang Dynasty bureacrats, eunuchs, and other colorful characters and customs? If so, you'll appreciate The Human Tradition in Pre-Modern China (ISBN: 0-8420-2959-1), edited by Kenneth J. Hammond. Each essay focuses on a single historical personage in and through (and sometimes against) whom the tendencies of his or her particular era are revealed. This erudite and entertaining collection of essays covers the span of Chinese history as well as the diversity of its social types and roles. By the time you are done reading, you'll be seeing Chinese history not thru a glass darkly, but thru the eyes of the Shang Dynasty consort, Fu Hao, or the Song Dynasty patriot-warrior, Yue Fei. Your reviews and comments on individual essays or the collection as a whole are welcome here.

2006-07-10T12:37:00.000-07:00

Faces of Asia at the Sackler (7/1 - 9/4/06)--I will be in Virginia from 7/20-7/25 visting my wife's family in the Shenandoah Valley, but hope to run over to D.C. to take in this exhibit at the Sackler. Yesterday's Washington Post article framed the exhibit this way: "It's a mistaken notion that portraiture is a uniquely, or even predominantly, Western tradition, a notion reinforced, if inadvertently, by the newly reopened National Portrait Gallery, whose purview is exclusively American. By all means, visit the refurbished and revitalized Old Patent Office Building, which just opened this month after a 6 1/2 -year renovation, for a taste of portraiture of Americans past and present. Then stop by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery for "Facing East: Portraits From Asia." There, you'll encounter some of the same issues and questions posed by the National Portrait Gallery about the nature and purpose of portraiture -- plus a few new ones. It's all in a small but thoughtful exhibition of historical works from Japan, China, Iran, India, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Nepal, and contemporary pieces by the Korean-born Do-ho Suh and the Iraqi-born Jannane al-Ani." The Sackler's excellent website <http://www.asia.si.edu/ includes podcasts of Asian music and Silk Road-related scholarship as well.

2006-06-30T08:37:00.000-07:00

Roger and me (Confucius in translation): One of the highlights of last year was getting to study Confucius and Confucianism under distinguished scholar and tranlator of Confucius, Dr. Roger Ames of the University of Hawaii's East-West Center. It was a treat to see Roger at Kennesaw State's "Year of China" inaugural lecture in August of last year also. I wish to say a special thank you to Roger and his East-West Center colleagues for the ultimate experience at the East-West Center's summer institute "Infusing Asian Studies into the Undergraduate Curriculum" and an additional special thank you to members of our Tai Chi group at the East-West Center for gifting me with a copy of Roger's translation of the ANALECTS. The anthology that I use for my world literature courses uses a different translation of Confucius, but I use Roger's translation in my powerpoint presentations for the course. This week, one of my students, Xue Thao, wrote to me the following email: "Hi Professor Madden, I wanted to use analect 7.1 "Following the proper way, I do not forge new paths." It was not in our text and when I looked it up on various sites, the wording was longer and different. I can see the main idea in the analect, but I like the wording of the one you used better. I was wondering where you got it from so I can use it and cite it correctly. Thank you, -Xue Thao." I think Roger would agree that Xue Thao has very good taste in translations.

2006-06-29T22:37:00.000-07:00

GPC's Andreea Coman Wins Essay Contest. Andreea received 2nd prize in the 2nd Annual Georgia Consortium for International Studies student essay contest for excellence in international studies. Ms. Coman (pictured on the left-hand side in the accompanying photo) presented her essay entitled “The Core of the Struggle,” dealing with women’s rights of self-determination in Islam, at the 5th Annual GCIS Symposium on March 17th and received a $200.00 cash award. I am pleased to write that Andreea's essay was originally composed as a term paper for my Honors English 1102 course and that I had the privilege of serving as her faculty sponsor for the essay contest. Andreea will pursue a major in journalism, enjoys the study of yoga and Middle Eastern dance, and will spend next year studying and working in Italy.

2006-06-29T22:30:00.000-07:00

The Georgia Consortium for International Studies annual symposium was hosted by Georgia Perimeter College this year. It was my pleasure to serve as program chair for the symposium, and we were happy to see registration for the symposium double this year. Featuring presentations from participants in the University System of Georgia faculty seminars abroad, the program included 22 presentations attended by 75 registered participants. Presentations focused on the economic and cultural impact of India’s booming technology sector, and the politics and arts of multi-ethnic Mexico. For more information, visit: www.gacis.org.

2006-06-29T22:11:00.000-07:00

Dear East-West Center Friends, GPC colleagues, (and other friends with an interest in Asian Studies), Welcome to "Postcards from Asia"--my new blog. At this weblog (which we can share), I will keep you up to date on my own Asian studies and travels, and invite you to join me in discussions on topics in Asian studies ranging from trends and topics in literature and culture to contemporary issues such as East-West relations, sustainable development, media representations of Asia, Asia in the arts, and so on. The field of topics is wide open and I invite your participation as we continue our professional journey into a deeper understanding of the peoples and significance of Asian peoples and cultures. (The attached image is the logo that I helped to design this year to advertise Georgia Perimeter College's "Focus on East Asia" symposium).