Spring 2012 study abroad in Beijing students pose at the foreign affairs ministry.

In late March 2012, the undergraduate participants in our second annual Spring Social Sciences Program arrived in Beijing and delved into classes on Chinese society, political history, and economics. The students will be in Beijing for one ten-week quarter, and will combine their coursework with unique group excursions to government bureaus, companies, nongovernmental organizations, and historical sites. This year’s three English-language courses are being taught by University of Chicago Professor Dali YANG (“Chinese Foreign Policy”), University of Chicago Professor William PARISH (“Chinese Society”), and Renmin University Professor TAO Ran (“China’s Economic Development and Transition”); the students are also taking Chinese classes with Renmin University language faculty.

Students visited the China Population and Development Research Center and were treated to a demonstration of software being developed to track demographic changes.

The readings and course discussions for this program are brought alive through weekly excursions to government agencies, companies, NGOs, and historical sites, plus Q&A sessions with speakers. On March 30th, the students visited the National Museum of China and the Forbidden City to investigate how China presents its own political and social history. On April 6th, the group discussed population dynamics with a Director-General of the National Population and Family Planning Commission and also visited the China Population and Development Research Center; this visit was followed on April 13th by an excursion to another top government body, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where the students spoke about policy and current events with a ministry director.

UChicago (Beijing) Consulting Company Ltd. is a wholly foreign owned enterprise that provides consulting services to the University of Chicago.  UCHICAGO (Beijing) provides an intellectual destination for research, teaching, and scholarly partnerships and a physical presence to enhance and strengthen the University’s collaborations in China. It creates a base for University of Chicago faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates working in China; serves as a gathering space for alumni throughout Asia; and acts as a resource for Chinese researchers and students. Activities housed at the 2,000 square meter center include lectures, conferences, workshops, classes for University of Chicago students, and faculty research.

Research/Administrative Assistant

The Research Assistant’s primary responsibility will be to provide support for the research activities of the Faculty Director of the University of Chicago Center in Beijing. Specific duties will include organization and analysis of data and reports from official and online, print, and library resources.  The Research Assistant will also assist in ongoing collaborations with Chinese researchers.

Responsibilities will include providing administrative support for the Faculty Director, as well as assisting with logistical arrangements for other Center activities, including student programs, speaker events and academic conferences.  Additional administrative duties for the Center may be added to this position depending on the employee’s skills, including bookkeeping, photography, English/Chinese translation, website maintenance, guiding tours, marketing, database maintenance and other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

•     A bachelor’s degree in one of the social science disciplines is required; a master’s degree is preferred.
•     Candidate must be a native speaker of Chinese or have equivalent verbal and written Chinese language skills.
•     Prior experience doing research, preferably in economics, political science, sociology or other social sciences, is a plus. Familiarity with statistical software such as STATA is a plus.
•     A good working knowledge of English, both spoken and written, is required.
•     Able to multitask and be flexible.
•     Good inter-personal skills. Candidate must be able to work well with other staff members in a multicultural environment.

Student Internship

General Summary:

UChicago (Beijing) offers two internships for students.  These positions will be part-time, with flexible hours, and will offer a small stipend.  These positions are suitable for undergraduate or graduate students or to individuals taking a gap year.

Student interns will provide planning and logistical support for student programs, conferences, workshops and special events, and will have an opportunity to get involved in many aspects of their management and execution.  Interns may also assist with operations, PR and marketing.

Qualifications :

• Fluent Chinese and strong English language proficiency, spoken and written.
• Good organization skills and attention to detail.
•  Good teamwork and communication skills.
•  Prior experience planning events is a plus.
•  Strong computer skills are a plus.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

To: University of Chicago Faculty and Research Staff

From: Dali Yang, Faculty Director of the Center in Beijing and Professor of Political Science

Date: November 28, 2011

On behalf of the faculty steering committee of the University of Chicago Center in Beijing, I am pleased to invite a new round of proposals for programs and academic events at the Center in Beijing. In addition to being home for study-abroad programs and internships, the Center supports a range of activities organized around three broad and intersecting themes: Business, Economics, and Policy; Culture, Society, and the Arts; and Science, Medicine, and Public Health (with recognition that some activities straddle these thematic areas).

We encourage the submission of innovative ideas/proposals that will help foster global initiatives and facilitate collaboration with scholars and institutions in China the East Asia region. For the 2012-13 academic year, support is available for activities such as the following:

• Conferences and workshops to promote the sharing of ideas among scholars/researchers, policy makers, and industry leaders from China, the United States, and beyond; particularly welcome are planning and brainstorming workshops to facilitate the development of NIH, NSF, and/or other grant proposals for collaborative international projects.
• Lectures and events, including arts programs, to engage scholars, alumni, and the public.
• Professional development programs for professionals, government officials, and practitioners in China and the region.
• Residencies and fellowships for faculty or graduate students conducting research in China. Graduate student proposals should include proof of endorsement from a faculty member.

Information about past and upcoming activities at the Center can be found at www.uchicago.cn.

In the past two cycles award amounts have varied from several thousand dollars to cover international travel and lodging for a faculty resident fellow to US$30,000 for major conferences. For conferences, cost sharing with in-country partners and local collaborating institutions is generally expected. Conference proposals should include discussion of the potential for future collaboration.

Proposal Format: Each proposal or letter of intent should include: names and affiliations of main organizers/participants (from the University and other institutions); discussion of aims, significance, and rationale; preferred timing; and preliminary budget (guidelines for conference proposals/budgeting can be obtained upon request from beijingcenter@uchicago.edu).

The proposal should be emailed to BeijingCenter@uchicago.edu by February 15, 2012, and Committee decisions about funding will be expected in March. (Proposals submitted by the deadline will receive priority consideration, but the Center welcomes inquiries at any time of the year subject to fund availability.) Once projects have been approved and funded, staff at the Center in Beijing will provide planning and logistical support.

The Center in Beijing

Located in the heart of Beijing’s University District, the Center in Beijing offers a home for University of Chicago faculty, research staff, and students to engage in a broad spectrum of intellectual activities across the disciplines. Its 23,000 square feet of space includes office space for visiting faculty and students, state of the art classrooms and meeting rooms in a range of sizes, exhibition space, and convivial areas for informal meetings. There are several comfortable hotels and very convenient public transportation nearby. Staff based at the Center are available to facilitate conferences, workshops, and other activities at the Center and to provide support for faculty and others conducting work in China. In addition to the activities outlined above, the Center in Beijing is also available to faculty and members of the University community traveling in China. If you will be in China and wish to visit the Center, participate in lectures or other programs, or otherwise make use of the Center, please contact the Center in Beijing staff at BeijingCenter@uchicago.edu.

WANG Guosheng, Governor of Hubei Province, presents a Chime Bell Award to Dr. Renslow SHERER.

Initiated by the government of Hubei Province in 1994, the Chime Bells Award honors foreign experts who have contributed to the betterment of the province.  The University of Chicago’s Renslow Sherer was the only American among this year’s ten recipients. “The Chime Bell award was very moving,” he reported.

Dr. Sherer, Professor of Medicine in the Infectious Diseases and Global Health section of the Biological Sciences Division, is also a visiting professor at Wuhan University in Hubei.  The school’s English language website had this to say about his contributions:

As the advocate of the WHU-Chicago Medical Education Reform Project, he serves as the project leader of the US side. In the meantime, he works for the World Health Organization contributing to the compilation of guidelines for HIV/AIDS prevention, and also for the World Health Foundation as technical supervisor of the Sino-US Joint Training Program of AIDS Prevention. Since 2003, Prof. SHERER has visited Hubei more than 30 times, making significant contributions to the medical staff training and medical education cause of the province.

During its first year of operations, the University of Chicago Center in Beijing hosted three events jointly organized by Dr. Sherer: the Conference on Global Health (September 16, 2010), the Infectious Disease Symposium (April 11-13, 2011) and the Medical Education Reform Workshop (May 9-10, 2011).  Besides Wuhan University, collaborating Chinese institutions included Project HOPE Shanghai, Beijing University, Hong Kong University, Peking Union Medical College, the China Medical Board, Shanghai Jiaotong University, the Chinese Academy of Medical Science, Peking University Health Science Center and Fudan University.  Sherer plans more workshops in the coming year.

Professor James Hevia distributes handouts during orientation.

The 2011 East Asian Civilizations Study Abroad Program features classes taught by University of Chicago professors James Hevia, Dingxin Zhao and Jacob Eyferth, as well as Chinese language instructors from Renmin University ZHANG Zhi and YU Hechuan.

Students chatted in Mandarin with local tourists at Miaofengshan.

The first excursion outside Beijing was to the Daoist temple at Miaofengshan.

Professor Hevia’s course gave students a sense of the history of Beijing in the late Qing Dynasty and early 20th century. During orientation weekend, students accompanied Professor Hevia to the Forbidden Palace. On Friday, September 30, he led an excursion to the Daoist temple at Miaofengshan, following in the footsteps of preceding generations of pilgrims that the group had read about in class. The class also visited the Beijing Urban Planning Exhibition Center, where they investigated how the city has changed in the past few decades.

Professor Hevia points to the older area of Shanghai as depicted at the Urban Planning Museum.

At the Shanghai Museum, students and teacher talk in front of an exhibit of Taiwanese canoes.

On October 14th and 15th, Professor Hevia accompanied the students on a trip to visit Suzhou and Shanghai. The group, which had read about public parks and gardens in Beijing, toured the UNESCO World Heritage-listed historic gardens and canals of Suzhou. In Shanghai, where the Bund’s early 1900s buildings sit across the Huangpu River from post-modern Pudong, the group visited Shanghai’s own Urban Planning Museum and the Chinese art collections of the Shanghai Museum.

Professor Dingxin Zhao led the second course of the quarter, focusing on revolutions and rebellions in the past several centuries of Chinese history. On October 26th, Professor Zhao took the students to Tianjin, a 45-minute trip on a high-speed bullet train.  They explored the historic foreign concessions area in Tianjin, where the architecture is in an early-20th-Century European style. The history of Tianjin is intimately related to the rise of Western and Japanese imperialism, which triggered the rise of Chinese nationalism and the ensuring wars and revolutions in China during the 20th century. Elana Kranz, Program Coordinator for the College’s Study Abroad office, accompanied the group.

In Tianjin, the students viewed architecture very similar to much of Hyde Park. (Photo by Dingxin Zhao)

The high-speed train to Tianjin was comfortable and quick. (Photo by Dingxin Zhao)

The UofC group arrived at the migrant children's school in time for recess.

Professor Jacob Eyferth explains how a smithy works during the visit to a small factory.

The final class in the Civ quarter was taught by Professor Jacob Eyferth. This course investigated the complex dynamics between urban and rural areas in 20th-century and contemporary China. On November 23rd, Professor Eyferth took students to Picun, a village near Beijing that was founded by migrant workers and their children.  The UofC group visited an elementary school, a small factory, and a museum which tells the migrants’ story in their own words.

For More Information:

Alumni Panel Hosted for Fall 2011 College Civilizations Students

East Asian Civilizations Program at the Beijing Center

College Study Abroad Webpage for East Asian Civilizations in Beijing

Seoul National University President Yeon Cheon Oh poses with students and teachers of the Chinese Studies program held at the University of Chicago Center in Beijing. (Photo by Office of International Affairs, SNU)

Seoul National University brought its study abroad program in Chinese Studies to the University of Chicago Center in Beijing.  The nine-day program (from August 19 to 27, 2011) included seminars by Korean CEOs, lectures by eminent professors of Chinese studies and field trips to world heritage sites and Korean companies in Beijing.  Fifty SNU undergraduates were taught by Professor Jeonghoon Lee, Department of Chinese Language & Culture, and four assistants.

A highlight for the Center was the visit of Seoul National University President Yeon Cheon Oh on Saturday, August 20.  Oh, who attended SNU as an undergraduate before earning a PhD in Public Administration from New York University, was given a tour of the Center by Executive Director Beth Bader.  “President  Oh emphasized that 22 University of Chicago graduates hold faculty positions at Seoul National University,” she reported.

Youqin Wang with four students near Chengde. (Photo by Fangpei Cai)

Youqin WANG points to two charts from an article she’s recently published.  The first tracks the increase in the number of students enrolled in the University of Chicago Chinese Language Program, which she’s headed since 2001.  The second shows the increase of mainland China’s GDP over the same period.  The charts show roughly similar inclines.

Wang and Fangpei CAI have been bringing Chinese language students from the University of Chicago to Beijing the last four summers.  The basic model of the summer program is to begin the mornings with 2-hour classes of about nine students, then to hold a second two hours with about five students per class.  During a fifth hour each schoolday, pairs of students work with a “drill instructor,” a native student enrolled in a Masters program in Chinese.

The cafe area of the Center allowed the right light for calligraphy. (photo by James Tao)

The students also keep daily journals in Chinese, do a weekly photo or video report on a Beijing topic and produce final week videos of Mandarin conversations they hold with Beijingers.  Excursions provide cultural perspective with trips this year to the city of Chengde, the Great Wall, a rural school that teaches skills to young women and a temple in the mountains west of Beijing, as well as important cultural sites in the capital, including the Forbidden Palace, the Lama Temple, Olympic Village, the 798 Arts District, the National Museum, the Summer Palace, Tian’anmen Square and the National Centre for the Performing Arts.

UofC students pose with young women attending a training academy outside Beijing. (photo by Fangpei Cai.)

2011 is the first year for the program to be held at the Center in Beijing.  Wang and Cai both felt this improved the teaching experience by providing better classrooms, small group study rooms and priority scheduling.  Cai believed it was easier to get the students to arrive for early classes on time because they tended to come in early to prepare.

Ji YUAN, the Senior Program Officer at the Center in Beijing, believes the 2011 Summer students were an especially attentive and dedicated group.  As he pointed out at the farewell dinner, they “proved that students actually will show up on time for 8am classes.”

UofC students explore Beijing. (photo by Jamie Manley)

Henry M. Paulson Jr., former United States Treasury Secretary and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, has been appointed as a distinguished senior fellow at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy Studies.

The five-year appointment will take effect July 1.

At Chicago Harris, Paulson will add an important voice to the University’s ongoing conversations about public policy and global markets, especially the potential for strengthening cooperation between the United States and China to address global issues.

In addition to his appointment at Chicago Harris, Paulson announced Monday that he is creating the Paulson Institute, an independent entity located at the University of Chicago in Hyde Park.

The newly formed Paulson Institute will focus on the growing relationship between the United States and China, and will seek ways to foster cooperation between the two nations at all levels. The Institute will examine critical issues affecting the two countries, including the development of clean energy technology, environmental protection, and cross-investment between the United States and China.

2011 alumni award winners include musicians, volunteers and medical researchers.

With Center in Beijing Faculty Director Dali Yang looking on, Renmin Professor Tao Ran gets ready to speak at the 2010 Beijing Forum.

TAO Ran, who earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago in 2002, taught a Social Sciences course entitled “The Chinese Economy in Transition” to UofC students in the Spring, 2011, Social Sciences Study Abroad program.  Professor Tao, the first non-UofC professor to teach at the Center in Beijing, joined two experienced University of Chicago professors– historian Michael Geyer and sociologist William Parish– to lead this program.  Besides his current duties at Beijing’s Renmin University, Tao previously taught as a post-doctoral fellow at Oxford University.

TAO spent several years as a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is well-respected in China as an expert on land use and reform in China’s fast urbanization.  On April 29th, he led the students on an excursion designed to show the vast possible differences in outcomes due to land use policies.  In the morning, the students toured Zhenggezhuang, a highly-developed resort village in north suburban Beijing.  In the afternoon, Tao led students to a school for the children of migrants in an underdeveloped area nearby.

Viewing a model of Zhenggezhuang, Tao Ran elaborates on the farmers' successful development of their village.

Both Zhenggezhuang and the migrant village are dynamic in their own ways, Tao explained.  An exception to the usual framework of Chinese land use policies, the resort showed that a pilot program allowing farmers to experiment with their own plan for development could make for a prosperous village. Granting farmers the opportunity to develop their own land, accompanied by good planning, as Tao indicates, is the direction for China’s future land reform in urbanization.   The migrant village, on the other hand, demonstrates how a community has chosen to cope with its challenges until an official framework for the needed social services can be developed.  Professor Tao has worked with the new residents to build a school from donated funds and volunteer labor.

Tao Ran introduces UofC students to the children of migrants at a school north of Beijing.