China Studies: Chinese Characters, History and Culture Along the Silk and Jade Road

Introduction

This summer school aims to advance the student’s understanding of the international community’s concerns regarding China’s development in the 20th and 21st centuries. The curriculum design in this program covers three main categories: Chinese characters, Sino-foreign cultural exchanges, and Chinese history. The program includes lectures on Chinese characters, history and culture for one week, investigative field trips along the Silk and Jade Road for one week, and research writing based on personal experience and reflection.

Period: 14th August to 27th August, 2016

Program fee (including tuition fee, accommodation fee and travel, expense in China): 1912 USD

Highlights

The lectures focus on two thousand years of Sino-foreign cultural exchanges, the historical development of Chinese characters, vertical and horizontal writing, crystallization of wisdom and aesthetics, the epigraphy of ancient China, ancient Chinese characters of ethnic minorities, as well as the treasury of the Dunhuang grottoes and Chinese-Western communication. The program is designed around ‘The Hexi Corridor on the Silk and Jade Road’ which is the most important path in the history of Chinese and Western culture communication. The route includes Shanghai (Yu Garden, the Bund, Shanghai Museum, Zhu Jia Jiao Village), Xi’an, Lanzhou, and Dunhuang. Moreover, the program covers a series of cultural activities for students, such as preparing traditional Chinese food.

Instructors

Jian WANG Professor, Ph.D.

Jian WANG is currently a full-time professor in the Center for International Chinese Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He recieved his doctoral degree from Peking University, and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l’Asie Orientale, the Institute of Linguistics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as well as Fudan University. His research mainly focuses on the syntax of Wu, Hui and Jianghuai dialects. His research areas involve synchronic comparison and diachronic studies using various syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic theories.

Zhaoyang ZHANG Associate Professor, Ph.D.

Zhaoyang ZHANG obtained his Ph.D. in history from University of California at Berkeley in 2010. He is an associate professor in the Department of History, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Having many publications in leading domestic and international journals, he has very broad research interests, which include the history of Sino-foreign cultural exchanges, Chinese legal history, social history and more.

Yuanchun LIU Lecturer, Ph.D.

Yuanchun LIU received his doctoral degree in Chinese Orthography and Applied Orthography from East China Normal University. He is a lecturer in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He was also an associate professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Pusan National University. His research areas include Chinese orthography, the overseas science of Chinese characters, and the stone inscriptions of middle ancient times.