EAS has a new program coordinator

Peimin Ni, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy and winner of the GVSU 2002 Glen Niemeyer Outstanding Faculty Award, is the new Coordinator of East Asian Studies. Ni joined GVSU in 1992, and was involved in the original establishment of the EAS program. Author of four books and numerous articles, former President of the Association of Chinese Philosophers in America, editor-in-chief of the book series of Chinese and Comparative Philosophy, Ni is an active scholar in the field of comparative philosophy between Chinese and Western philosophy, with a main focus on Confucianism. A key person in establishing GVSU exchange relations with several Chinese institutions, Ni is the founder of the GVSU

New EAS Faculty Members

Yosay Wangdi

Since August 2003, Yosay Wangdi has been working as Assistant Professor in the Department of History. She is a Tibetan, the second generation to be born outside of Tibet, in India. She did her schooling and earned her College degree in History Honors from Loreto College, Darjeeling, India. She earned a Masters and then a M. Phil. degree in History from Jadavpur University (Calcutta, India) in 1992. In 1996, she entered the History doctoral program of the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). She completed her M. S. Degree in Economics in 1999 and a Ph.D in History in 2003, both from UNR. Her dissertation, “Echoes of an Agonized Nation: Transformations in Tibetan Identity in Diaspora,” aims to articulate the new Tibetan identity now emerging in Diaspora Tibet.
Before beginning her doctoral training in 1996, she enjoyed extensive teaching experience in India. Then from Fall 1996 to Spring 2002, she worked as Teaching Assistant in the Departments of History and Western Traditions at the University of Nevada, Reno, instructing and participating in a wide variety of courses, ranging from the history of East Asia and the history of science, to American, European, and Latin civilizations. At Grand Valley, besides teaching World History, she has introduced courses on the History of India and introduced Buddhism in the class on East Asian Religion. In Winter 2003, she taught, ‘Tibet and the Himalayan World.’ With the privilege of being trained in two distinct traditions, Wangdi’s cross-cultural background has provided her with a powerful metaphor for the classroom.
In addition to History, Wangdi’s research interest also includes the environment. The subject matter of her M. S. thesis in Economics was “Deforestation in the Himalayan Region: An Institutional Approach.” In the Summer of 2004, she was awarded research grant from the Department of Research and Development and from the International office at Grand Valley State University.

Huatong Sun

Huatong Sun just got her PhD in Communication and Rhetoric/ Human?Computer Interaction from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the summer of 2004. Prior to that, she received a M.S. in Rhetoric & Technical Communication from Michigan Tech. She is interested in how cultural factors influence and shape the adoption and use of information technologies in an age of globalization. As this is an interdisciplinary subject, she enjoys traversing different fields and labels her research areas differently according to the audience, for example, digital rhetoric and technical communication for her home department of writing, social computing and human?computer interaction for information science and computer science folks, and computer?mediated communication to people in communication. Her dissertation on a localization study of mobile text messaging use recently won a “Best Thesis Award” from the Localisation Research Centre at the University of Limerick, Ireland.
Huatong started her research career as a Chinese Literature student at Fudan University. She is happy that her training in literary criticism still informs her current research, and this is one of the major reasons that she thinks she should add another label of East Asian Studies to her claimed research areas.

Pairing Harvard with GVSU — Dr. Tu Weiming visited GVSU

Dr. Tu Weiming, President Murray and Senator Carl Levin

Dr. Tu Weiming, the world’s leading scholar on Confucianism and Chinese intellectual traditions, Director of Harvard-Yenching Institute and Professor of Chinese history, philosophy, and Confucian Studies at Harvard University, presented a lecture entitled “Beyond the Enlightenment Mentality – A New Perspective on Confucian Humanism” at GVSU in December of 2003. During this visit, he also received an honorary doctorate degree from GVSU at the December Commencement.
Besides being the author of numerous influential books and articles in English and in Chinese, Dr. Tu is active in many public bodies including the World Economic Forum, the United Nations’ Group of Eminent Persons on the Dialogue among Civilizations, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Tu’s lecture at GVSU attracted hundreds of audiences from GVSU, nearby colleges, and the local community. Tu’s broad vision, deep insights, and eminent stature impressed the audience so much that one student even said that “he dwarfed all of us.” Nevertheless, Tu’s amiable approach demonstrated his exemplary embodiment of the best of the Confucian virtues – being moderate and willing to engage in transformative encounters with others. Tu was also deeply impressed by the general openness of the Grand Valley community and its faculty strength. He even suggested that, to promote mutual corporation, GVSU can be a host for the annual Harvard-Yenching symposium of Confucian Studies. During his visit to Grand Valley, Tu also had extensive conversations with our East Asian Studies faculty and the members of the local Chinese community.

Dialogue with Richard Rorty
Reported by Peimin Ni

Richard Rorty is probably the most influential philosopher in the world today. This summer I had a chance to I attend a symposium on “Rorty, Pragmatism, and Chinese Philosophy” in Shanghai, sponsored by East China Normal University and the Association of Chinese Philosophers in America. Richard Rorty delivered a keynote speech at the symposium, and responded to all the papers presented at the meeting, including mine. As a person, Rorty gave me a very nice impression. Given his international fame, he was surprisingly moderate and unassuming. Sometimes he looked even a bit shy. He did not presume to appear as an authority on any subject, and openly acknowledged his own lack of knowledge of Chinese philosophical traditions. Sitting on a bus next to him, eating with him at the same table, and walking with him on the streets of Shanghai was as pleasant and relaxing as being accompanied by a long time friend or colleague. The fact that he responded to every paper at the conference shows his seriousness in having dialogues with other scholars. A slight, but not really surprising, disappointment with him I had was that he did not seem to be prepared to learn from other traditions, and to adjust his own views accordingly. His responses were more just defending his position, a position that practically leads toward a relativistic and nihilistic attitude from which he constantly found himself in need of separating.

GVSU Got Its Official Chinese Name

For the past ten years, GVSU has developed exchange relationships with numerous Chinese institutions, yet we did not have a unified Chinese translation for the name of GVSU. We have been called (Big River Valley State Univ.), (Big Stream Valley State Univ.), (Grand Canyon State Univ.), and in an extreme case, (Ten-thousand Valley State Univ.). The varying translations have caused some confusion, and we can predict that as our exchange relationships develop, will cause even more confusions. After careful consideration and comparison of different names in Chinese, the East Asian Studies faculty has chosen a unified and creative Chinese name for Grand Valley – ???????. Since a literal translation (Big River Valley or Big Stream Valley) sounds in Chinese the tone of being underdeveloped, the new name uses a transliteration for the word “Grand”— ??, which carries the meaning of “Reflecting on Orchid.” Orchid is understood in Chinese tradition as a flower that has an exemplary moral virtue. It has a refreshing fragrance, so it is both noble and yet moderate. The word ? means philosophical reflection and appreciation. A seal with the GVSU Chinese name (i.e. the image below) has been engraved by a renowned calligraphy artist, Wo Xinghua, and will be used for our Chinese art collections and for other appropriate purposes.

Report from Professor Yan Yu

I just came back from Beijing, China. During my stay in Beijing, I interviewed 31 married couples and completed 60 interviews. The goal of my project is to conduct research that will result in a greater understanding of the impact of the current socioeconomic transformation upon the quality of Chinese marriages and families in urban China. In particular, I intend to investigate how married couples in urban China perceive their marital quality in the period of rapid socioeconomic transformation and what factors determine couples’ marital satisfaction.
Marriage is one of the most intense human relationships. The quality of this relationship is continually being redefined by spouses and is potentially crucial to their overall experience of family life. Although a substantial literature on marital quality exists, most research focuses on Western families, with few understanding of other societies. Can a common set of assumptions about the marital relationship be applied to different societies? This project expands the existing marriage quality literature to a non-Western setting—the People’s Republic of China. Examining marital quality in China, a country undergoing rapid economic and social change, can illuminate a number of theoretical debates within marriage and family theory. This project also allows me to do a comparative study of the determinants of marital quality among Chinese couples in urban China and Chinese immigrant couples in West Michigan.

This past summer I participated in a study abroad in China through the Philosophy department. Needless to say it was an experience which will be hard to top for years to come. The trip has given me insight into a world of which I had knowledge of mainly through books and television. Experiencing life in China first-hand was far more valuable to my understanding of the culture and lifestyle than a room full of books could ever provide.
One can gain a limited feel of what life in China is like by reading the mass amounts of literature. However, until you have experienced the bustling metropolis of Shanghai, with its cosmopolitan penchant for everything Western; the history (both new and old) of Beijing, the relaxed and otherworldly feel of Lhasa, where it is not unusual to see Buddhist monks and pilgrims en-masse, twirling prayer wheels or talking on cellular phones, and even sometimes both at once (making for a wonderful juxtaposition), until you have experienced all of this, you have only scratched the surface of a multi-dimensional picture.
Maybe Hong Kong is more to your liking: A thriving capitalist Juggernaut where mirrored buildings poke through the clouds hovering over Kowloon Bay. I would stay away from the red-light district if I were you; there is only trouble to be found there. A stroll through the modest tea museum in Hong Kong Park is probably a wiser decision.
On a more serious note, the trip gave me a greater understanding of the complicated nature of international politics, minority and ethnic relationsand the philosophies of the people that live there and which greatly influence every facet of Chinese culture.
Despite that some back home in the U.S. may think China is not a wholly oppressive totalitarian state. The people there that we talked to seemed quite content, and made it clear that they were allowed certain liberties. Contrary to popular belief, the ordinary person will most likely not be thrown in jail merely for making dissenting comments. Publishing slanderous or defaming things is another matter however. Organizing is also a touchy subject.
At “English Corner” (the campus event for students of the English language) we were constantly bombarded with questions about American politics and culture, as well as questions about sports and television. One had to wonder about the random older persons who would be seen standing amongst the teenagers. Maybe they were just there to gaze at the statue of Chairman Mao, whose visage is omnipresent in all parts of China. Statues, watches, lighters, plates, posters, buttons, handbags, you name it, and Mao’s pasty smiling face was on it.
One Chinese student that I became friends with rejected an invitation to join the Communist Party on the grounds that he didn’t like the way they did business, and so he wears a modest Sun Yat-sen lapel pin as a small, personal protest. This same student also organized an informal get-together on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen incident to talk about it and what it means. Subsequently, local officials told him that he had to leave the establishment where they planned to meet. There were no arrests involved and no use of force, just a request that they leave, and a reminder that the government is not comfortable with what they were doing. This may not be close to what we consider freedom, but it’s not the unfeeling, ruthless hand of oppression that we are sometimes presented with as an image of Communist China either. I did get a chuckle when I saw a copy of 1984 in a bookstore though. There was also an encounter with a Tibetan nationalist at a bookstore in Lhasa, who said that the Chinese were impeding the teaching of the Dharma in Tibet, and made his dislike of the Chinese presence in Tibet quite clear. However, this is not to ignore the many Tibetans who were either indifferent or content in Tibet.

In Tibet I became aware that there are two sides to the issue of Tibetan freedom, and that perhaps neither is being completely honest or realistic. Everyone has their angle, agenda, or vision for Tibet, but often the voices that are ignored are those who are most directly affected, the Tibetans. We hear a lot of propaganda from the PRC, as well as from the Dalai Lama and the Government in Exile, but should we take it all at face value? The PRC obviously has its own angle to push, but few people scrutinize the message that comes out of the exile community either, which is a relatively small group of people who are speaking for a very large group of people, and who are known to all have dissident attitudes about the Chinese government. Asking the exiles or the PRC about what is best for Tibet is like asking Phillip Morris if you should smoke or not. You should know the answer before you even ask it, and you should know why you get that answer. Unfortunately, the amount of unbiased and truly insightful literature on the subject is mired under a far larger pile of propaganda, pop-literature, pseudo-philosophy, and new-age self-help. Until I went to Tibet and saw for myself what it is like there I honestly wanted to believe that Tibetan independence was a cause that I should take up, but actually being there changed my mind, and forced me to accept the complexity of the issue.
When we first landed in Shanghai the city was an overload of the senses. The smells, sights, and sounds were all so very novel and wondrous. After a few weeks that novelty kind of wore off and I started to see an industrial hodgepodge of concrete, steal, power cables, and smog. I became a little frustrated at the nauseating barrage of smoke and traffic, the combination of which feels so heavy sometimes that it may be on the verge of collapsing in on itself. Then I started to feel at home, and had fun wandering around one of the largest cities in the world. Living there for six weeks helped me realize that there are many ways of living and seeing things in this world, and I consider that one of the most valuable lessons I will ever learn. Thank you Peimin, Geling, and everyone else, who shared with me these singularly wonderful six weeks.

China Summer Program Expands in 2005

While China has become an increasingly popular place for Study Abroad, GVSU is going to expand its China Summer Study Abroad Program to 12 weeks to accommodate more students.
The GVSU China program has successfully operated for 9 years. One hundred twenty students have gone on the program, among them several went more than once. Many students said that the trip was transformative and life?changing for them. This past summer, the enrollment had gone up to 26 students!

To meet the increasing demand from our students and to further improve the effectiveness of the program, several changes of the program will be implemented next year:
First, the 6-week program will be expanded to 12 weeks with two 6?week sessions, Spring and Summer. Students can choose to attend either one session or both.
Second, Chinese language courses and a few general education courses are added to the program. Students get to choose two courses out of the three offered in each session. Spring term: CHI 101, PHI 102 (Ethics), EAS 201 (East Asia and the Contemporary World); Summer term: CHI 102, PHI 210 (Eastern Philosophy), LIB 100 (Introduction to Liberal Studies).
The most exciting part of a study abroad program is always the field trips. Next year the Spring Session contains trips to Beijing, Xian, and part of the Silk Road. The summer Session will make trips to Tibet, E?Mei Mountain, and Putuo Island. Both sessions will still be hosted by East China Normal University in Shanghai and led by GVSU philosophy professors Peimin Ni and Geling Shang.