China Center News

Winter 1999

Chinese Agricultural University Presidents Visit Minnesota

Braving Minnesota's winter weather, a delegation of presidents from 10 major Chinese agricultural universities, led by the Vice Minister for Education, Dr. Zhou Yuanqing, visited the University in early February as guests of the College of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Sciences(COAFES). The purpose of the delegation's visit was to learn how the land-grant mission of a U.S. university in teaching, research, and extension can be effectively fulfilled.

The 18-member delegation representing the Ministry of Education, South China Agricultural University, Beijing Forestry University, Shanghai Fisheries University, Northeast Agricultural University, Hunan Agricultural University, Hebei Agricultural University, Sichuan Agricultural University, Shandong Agricultural University, Zhejiang University and China Agricultural University, was met in Owatonna by COAFES Interim Dean Phil Larsen; Steven Daley Laursen, Associate Dean of the College of Natural Resources; and Steve Clarke, Acting Director of International Agricultural Programs.

The group visited the Steele County University of Minnesota Extension Office and discussed the role and programs of UM's Extension Service with Extension Educator Tim Arlt. Later in the afternoon in Waseca, Dave Walgenbach and his staff explained the role played by Research and Outreach Centers (formerly branch experiment stations) in conducting applied research and disseminating research-based information to the region's agricultural community.

On the St. Paul campus the next day, presentations were made in five areas of interest to the Chinese: plant sciences; natural resources; animal agriculture; food, nutrition and marketing; and technology enhanced learning. Dean Larsen as well as Alfred Sullivan, Dean of the College of Natural Resources; Jeffrey Klausner, Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine; and Robert Elde, Dean of the College of Biological Sciences, participated in the discussions along with a number of department heads and faculty.

The delegation also met with President Yudof and Provost Bruininks, both of whom underscored the long history and importance of University of Minnesota ties to China. The Chinese noted that some of their most distinguished agricultural scientists have been trained at Minnesota dating back to the 1930's. A luncheon, hosted by the China Center and emceed by Regents' Professor Paul Quie, Department of Pediatrics, brought together many faculty from the Twin Cities Campus who have been active in pursuing linkages with China. Later, Dean Larsen also hosted a dinner for the delegation that involved members of COAFES' Citizen Advisory Committee, including representatives from Land O' Lakes and Cenex and was emceed by Professor H. H. Cheng, head of the Department of Soil, Water and Climate.

Particular interest was expressed in research collaboration and scientific exchange, faculty development, student exchanges, the university's role in extension, sustainable farming, agricultural impacts on the environment, and distance education. Dean Larsen and other University leaders were extremely pleased to have the opportunity to personally meet and discuss common issues with such a distinguished group of Chinese agricultural university officials. Larsen expressed strong interest in making a follow-up visit to selected universities in order to develop specific programs of collaboration.

HHH Explores China Partnerships

From October 16 to October 25, 1998 Joan Brzezinski and I enjoyed an exciting exposure to several major Chinese research and foreign relations institutions. Each of us had a different purpose for the trip, but it was immensely valuable to me to work in China with someone as knowledgeable and experienced as Joan. Her main goal was to consider the University's student exchange programs while I mainly explored future faculty research cooperation, especially for the Humphrey Institute (HHH) and the Law School. I found very high interest and an extraordinary wealth of expertise on a wide variety of policy issues at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (our major host in Beijing), as well as at Peking and Renmin Universities in Beijing, at Nankai University in Tianjin, and at Fudan University in Shanghai. Joan and I also had profitable discussions with a major facilitating organization, the Chinese Association for International Understanding. Chinese higher education in the social sciences and law is already very strong and will soon receive strengthening with resource increases from the government. UM delegation met with faculty members from Fudan University

Picture: UM delegation met with faculty members from Fudan University

Many of the scholars with whom we spoke knew our university and its faculty well. The Fudan University Law School is anxious to build on some relationships established in the 1980s with the Minnesota Law School. I am now developing the plan for a conference to be held next summer on a topic that seems to fit the interests of a number of Chinese and Minnesota scholars: the significance of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group, and especially its development of competition policy to open markets effectively.

— Robert T. Kudrle
Humphrey Institute

Semester Changes to Travel Grants Program

The China Center provides grants to support work-related travel of faculty to the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Partial travel grants toward international airfare are offered to tenured and tenured-track faculty and equivalent level professional/academic staff with an official invitation for research, lecturing, or teaching. Conference travel is considered for funding when it is combined with lecturing or collaborative research activities.

Application deadlines for travel grants for the 1999-2000 academic year will be adjusted to fit with the University's switch to the semester system. The Œ99-'00 travel grant application schedule will be as follows: The deadline for application for Summer travel (June, July, and August) is May 17, 1999; the deadline for application for Fall semester travel (September through December, 1999) is August 15, 1999; and the deadline for application for Spring semester travel (January through May, 2000) is December 15, 1999. New applications will be available in April 1999. Contact the China Center for information and application materials or visit the Faculty Resources page at our website on www.chinacenter.umn.edu to download an application. Recipients of the Winter 1999 travel grant awards are Associate Professor March L. Krotee of Kinesiology and Associate Professor Xiaoyang Zhu of Chemistry.

Happy New Year! 1999 — Year of the Rabbit

According to Chinese Lunar calendar, this is the year of rabbit. New Year's day is on February 16, 1999. In China, the last evening of the old year is called Chu Xi, all the family members will get together and have a big family meal to celebrate. Fish is often eaten at this meal because the Mandarin word for fish (Yu) rhymes with a world for "extra". The "abundant" food, collectively consumed by the family, is said to bring "year after year of abundance" (Nian Nian You Yu). It is said that during this time the scraps of paper which accumulate around the house are not to be swept away, for they represent money. Children should stay awake all night, to ensure that their parents will have long life (Shou). For many children, the best thing about the festival is that they are given Hong Bao (red envelopes containing money) by their parents, relatives and other adults.

Study in China 1999 – 2000

The Chinese Universities Exchange Program (CUEP) offers academic year study for U of M students at Fudan University in Shanghai, Peking University in Beijing, and Nankai University in Tianjin. The ten-month program begins in early September and ends in late June or early July. Participants enroll in the Chinese language program for foreign students and much more. For more information, call the China Center at 624-1002, or visit the web site at http://www.chinacenter.umn.edu.

Application Deadline: March 26, 1999

China Issues Forum

Professor Richard Kagan of the History Department at Hamline University launched the Institute of Global Studies' China Issues Forum by speaking about the latest mayoral elections in Taipei, Taiwan. Employing a comparative cultural analysis of the conflict between Northern and Southern Taiwan politics, Professor Kagan painted a picture of the cultural differences between the Taiwanese DPP and the Chinese KMT parties in the recent elections through the medium of a modern Taiwanese artist. Coordinated by Chen Zhang, a student from P. R. China, Professor Ted Farmer of the History Department and Nelda Njos of ISSS, the China Issues Forum is a Culture Corps program which aims to enrich the University community through the talents and resources brought to the University by its international students and faculty. Future China Issues Forum topics are featured in the sidebar right. Contact the Culture Corps Program at 612-626-7194 or check the web site at www.isp.umn.edu/isss/SSservices/Culture_Corps for information about other programs being offered.

Our New Staff

The China Center welcomes Chen Chen as the new Office Specialist, the position formerly held by Kate Walker. Prior to coming to the China Center, Chen worked as a research assistant at the Department of Work, Community and Family Education. She helped organize the National Parent Institute, assisted the editor of the Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, and co-presented a research paper at the International Human Science Research conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

For more information about her, please check our web site at http://www.chinacenter.umn.edu/staff/chen.html.

Vintage Chinese Film Festival

March 31 – April 7, the Oak Street Cinema will present 10 films from the "Golden Era" of Chinese Cinema. These rare films offer a unique opportunity to see some of the best cinematic work from the "Hollywood of China" (Shanghai), during the two decades prior to 1949. Inspired by anti-Japanese and anti-imperialist sentiments, which reached a fevered pitch after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, talented writers and directors combined traditional Chinese storytelling and Western cinematic techniques with a new spirit of patriotism and social justice, producing innovative, artistic works. Three of the films are silent and will be accompanied by the live performance of internationally acclaimed pipa soloist, Gao Hong.

The Golden Era of Chinese Cinema 1933-1949 co-sponsored by China Center, the University of Minnesota's College of Liberal Arts, Department of Global Studies, and USCPFA, Minnesota Chapter. For a brief synopsis each of the films check the China Center web site's bulletin board at http://www.chinacenter.umn.edu/bbs/board.html or contact Oak Street Cinema, 309 Oak Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414, phone number 612-331-3134.