Globalization in ChinaChinese and UC students share different national perspectives as they study globalization side-by-side in Beijing.
by Randy Arnold and Peggy White
Up to now, study in China on EAP required prior Chinese language training and emphasized language acquisition. The new JCIS program has been designed to integrate with the curricula of a wide range of internationally-oriented UC majors, such as global studies and international relations, as well as sociology, history, economics, and political science. All courses are in English. According to Professor Dominic Sachsenmaier (Global Studies, UC Santa Barbara), “Today, most Sino-American exchange programs cater to students who specialize in Chinese studies or similar fields. While it is certainly very important to train future area specialists, the growing intensity of communications across the Pacific Rim and beyond necessitates the creation of an additional set of educational programs abroad—programs that focus on the experience of trans-cultural encounters and international competence.” The new program is designed to help UC and Peking University students understand the problems and processes of globalization from different and comparative national perspectives. Students will be challenged to grapple with defining globalization, past and present, and to engage in critical thinking about its many related social and environmental problems, policy issues, and economic processes, mainly in the context of China. The program will provide participants with an unparalleled opportunity to interrogate the processes and outcomes of globalization. The program includes a required core course about globalization, its inherent controversies, and China’s place in its processes and outcomes. Related electives will explore more in-depth the historical, political, economic, cultural, and sociological dimensions of globalization in modern China. The program’s innovative, inter-disciplinary curriculum is a result of collaboration between UC and Peking University faculty and administrators. Professors from both universities will teach courses, sometimes as a team, and students from both universities will study in the same classroom and conduct joint field projects. Professor Douglas Haynes, Director of the Global Cultures major at UC Irvine, observes, “The program will provide participants with an unparalleled opportunity to interrogate the processes and outcomes of globalization. This collaborative dimension will afford many students with an opportunity, in some cases for the first time, to study outside the U.S. and to appreciate a broader range of expertise and perspectives about the world from scholars and future leaders of China.” The location of the fall semester program is ideal, according to UC Davis Director of East Asian Studies, Professor Li Zhang. “Peking University is a world-renowned university and Beijing is the heart of China’s political and social life and an exciting place to experience multifaceted changes brought by globalization. The fact that our UC students will have the opportunity to study and live there for a period of time is just wonderful. This experience will be an invaluable asset to intellectual and career development.” Peking University has been a UC partner for 17 years. EAP sends about 120 students a year to study in China. The JCIS program is expected to double that number, and expand opportunities for UC students far into the future. “For the entire UC system, this will represent a unique opportunity that will enhance the educational breadth and depth of a UC education, never more important in its global implications than now,” said Professor Susan Mann, Vice Chair of History at UC Davis. |
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ew EAP programming in China will provide even more UC students
with the opportunity to learn about China in the modern world,
including students who don’t speak Chinese. Beginning in
fall 2005, students in the new UC/Peking University Joint
Center for International Studies program (JCIS) can study
globalization and its manifestations alongside their Peking
University counterparts in Beijing. 
