A Glimpse of Chinese Culture from A Comparative Perspective
Course information
Eight 1.5-hour live classes on Chinese culture in English, provided free of charge; Beijing time 7 pm-8.30 pm, August 1st - August 8th, 2022, daily
Online teaching platform: Tencent/Voov Meeting (Meeting ID 3337119277). You may download the app at https://voovmeeting.com/index.html.
Registration is now open for high school seniors and college students studying at educational institutions outside China. Please note the course enrolment limit is 100 students.
Please register by filling out the form https://www.wjx.cn/vm/YnosgXj.aspx or sending an email to xjtuculturalcourse@163.com, with the subject of the email titled “Course Registration”.
Registration deadline: July 30th, 2022
When registering for the course, please do provide your university email address for contact. Further information will be sent via email.
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Course overview
This summer school course is designed to help international students acquire cultural knowledge of China through a brief introduction to the history of Chinese civilization and important elements of contemporary Chinese culture. The course originates from Chinese and Western Cultures: A Comparison, a general education core course developed for undergraduate students at Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU), a leading national university in China. For the purpose of this summer school, we modify the teaching focus to elements of Chinese culture, while retaining necessary references to other cultures to support understanding of and discussion and reflection on cultural and intercultural topics that the course covers.
Topics covered in this course
This course consists of eight lectures, respectively focusing on:
· understanding culture in the globalized world
· origin of Chinese civilization
· traditional Chinese philosophies
· Chinese cultural values
· the Chinese language and thinking patterns
· Chinese educational practice
· Chinese visual arts
· Chinese poetry
Features of the course
This course draws upon teaching and research contributions from multiple disciplines. Activities and case study assignments are designed to encourage reflections on stereotypes and generalizations and promote awareness of cultural complexity and dynamics. All lectures incorporate discussions of the significance of intercultural communication, supporting deepened understandings of Chinese culture while increasing students’ capacities for informed engagement in today’s increasingly interconnected and interdependent world.
Teaching faculty
Mei Tian holds a PhD from the University of Bath, UK. She is a professor in the School of Foreign Studies at Xi’an Jiaotong University. Her research focuses on international student experiences in China. Her recent publications include Academic Experiences of International Students in Chinese Higher Education (London: Routledge). She currently serves as an executive member of the learning science research committee of China Association of Higher Education.
Yang Ruiying, Professor, PhD from the National University of Singapore; research interests include: Genre analysis, EAP teaching and corpus linguistics as well cultural studies; published widely, including peer-reviewed journal articles, monographs and textbooks; serving on the Board of Directors of the Association of English for Specific Purposes.
Fengling Peng, a PhD of World History, is an associate professor with the School of Foreign Studies of Xi’an Jiaotong University. Her research field is region and country-specific studies. Her publications focus on cultural study and cold war studies. She currently serves as the English Department Chair of the School of Foreign Studies at Xi’an Jiaotong University.
Dongmei Ge is an experienced English teacher in the School of Foreign Studies of Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. Her main research field falls in applied linguistics and genre analysis. Her interests also include translation and culture study.
