Study Abroad/Off-Campus: Cultural Confluences in China's Southwest

Southwest China Photo Album >>

Dates:
January 2–21, 2013 *Note: Dates and itinerary subject to change

Itinerary:
Hong Kong
Yunnan Province—Kunming, Jianshui, Yuanyang, Xishuangbanna, Dali, Weishan
Guangxi Province—Yangshuo
Guangzhou

This course offers a sequel to our previous trips to Southern China, extending westward our consideration of the rural and minority cultures in the southern border regions. Recently, China has turned its attention to development in the poorer inland regions, such as Yunnan, where large and diverse groups of minority peoples live in smaller towns and villages. On previous study trips, we have witnessed how development has affected the local rural lives of the Miao and Dong minorities.

Yunnan abounds in even larger numbers of minority cultures, still mostly rural, and still, at least for the moment, practicing a mixture of the old and new. Our explorations will concentrate on southern Yunnan, where China borders Southeast Asia—Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar—and where rural life still dominates. We will have the opportunity to see continuing work in embroidery, ceramics, batik, tie dyeing, dance, music, and general village and town life. Moreover, we will see the continued mixture of southern cultures—southern Han Chinese; minorities, such as the Yi, Hani, Dai, Va, Naxi, Bai, Hui, Tibetan, and Miao; and peoples from Southeast Asia.

China has always encompassed diverse peoples and cultures, and this is especially evident in the southern border regions. As we witness surviving traditions, we will consider how these practices have responded to the ineluctable forces of global change—the advent of tourism, ours as well as that of the Han Chinese, and the present and growing wealth of the southern coastal cities, such as Guangzhou/Canton, which we will reach near the end of our travels.

Our study will end in Guangzhou, though we will fly back to Chicago via Hong Kong, a city whose history really begins in the 19th century, with colonialism and international markets.  Guangzhou's modern development and contemporary urban culture will offer dramatic contrast to the town and village cultures we will have seen. While in Guangzhou, we will also have the opportunity to visit the famous Cantonese Opera School, to see its facilities, meet with students and instructors, and learn something of Guangzhou's aesthetic past and how that past is responding to contemporary culture. We will also make a brief trip outside of Guangzhou to visit, among other sites, the Nanhua Temple, dedicated to Huineng, the 6th patriarch of Chan (Zen) Buddhism in China.  Purportedly, his preserved body is enshrined there, encased within lacquer.

Credits: 3 credits STUDIO and / or 3 credits ARTHI

Instructors:
Stanley Murashige, Art History, Theory, and Criticism
Shay DeGrandis
Hau Kum Kneip

Program fee:
Approx. $3,850 (not including airfare; including accommodation, admissions, ground transport, all meals, Chinese visa).

Approx. $5,000 (group package including airfare; Chicago-Hong Kong and Guangzhou-Chicago, accommodation, admissions, ground transport, all meals, Chinese visa)

PLUS Tuition cost per credit:
Undergraduate—$1,278 per credit hour
Graduate—$1,356 per credit hour

Airfare:
If you are not opting for the group package including airfare, budget at least $1,500 for airfare if flying from the United States. (Note this is only an estimated figure. Actual fare will depend on many variables including airline, number of stopovers, exchange rate fluctuations, ports of departure and return, and date of ticket purchase).

Online Registration begins:
October 9, 2012

Deposit due at registration:
$525

Information Sessions:
Wednesday, September 19 at 12:10 p.m. in MacLean Center, 112 S. Michigan Ave., room 617
Thursday, September 20 at 12:10 p.m. in MacLean Center, 112 S. Michigan Ave., room 816
Thursday, September 27 at 4:15 p.m. in MacLean Center, 112 S. Michigan Ave., room 111