After Taiwan: To China

My location for the first two weeks of the trip will be Taiwan, where I will be doing research and exploring the island and city. I will spend the third and final week, however, across the Taiwan Strait in the People's Republic of China. This part of my trip is not directly connected to CAPEC; rather, I am making it on my own initiative. I think it makes sense to seize this rare opportunity of visiting a nation that is both vitally important to the modern, global economic and political system, and also fascinating from a cultural and world-historical perspective.

To spend seven days in China will be a wonderful thing, and I am thankful that various people and professors at George Mason have helped me to plan and arrange the trip. That being said, one cannot do justice to a country of 1.3 billion people, 3.7 million square miles, and more than four thousand years of history in a single week. Some tough choices soon will have to be made in planning for the trip. One thing that is certain, however, is that the focus of my visit will be Beijing, which has been the capital of China since AD 1271, and the educational and cultural center for as long (Brief history of Beijing).

Two other cities may be added to the itinerary, if time constraints allow it, on account of their historical value and overall coolness. The first is Xi'an, a city over 3,000 years old that is located in eastern central region of China (Map). This city was the eastern terminus of the Silk Road (Map, Summary), and the capital of China for various dynasties of the classical and early medieval eras (to make use of useful Western historical terms). It is also the location of the well known Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang (About the Terracotta Warriors), the first emperor of unified China. Xi'an is not close to Beijing; in order to travel there, I would need to take either an overnight, high-speed train, or a plane.

The second potential city of my trip is Qufu, which is closer to Beijing than Xi'an, but would still require an overnight train ride (Map). It is here that Confucius, the greatest Chinese philosopher, was born, in 551 BC. The city's three main attractions are the Temple of Confucius, the Cemetery of Confucius, and the Kong Family Mansion. The Temple was established in the 5th Century BC, just after Confucius' death. The nearby Cemetery is where Confucius was interred; it also keeps other tombs from even earlier in the First Millenium BC.

With regards to the Mansion, Kong was the surname of Confucius, and naturally has remained the name of his descendants, who inhabited this mansion for centuries. Kong Fuzi ("Master Kong") is the name which was rendered into Latin (the international scholarly, literary, and scientific language of Europe), along with the Analects themselves, during the late 16th Century, by Matteo Ricci, a fascinating Italian Jesuit missionary to China, who became a great admirer and scholar of Chinese civilization, and was the first Westerner to be invited into the Forbidden City (Learn about Ricci). Given the obvious connection with my research and interests in general, this city would also be a marvelous addition to the trip. We shall see what is possible.

The Scholarship for Taiwan Studies

The Center for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (CAPEC) was founded in 1996 by the Board of Visitors of George Mason University in order to address the growing economic importance of East Asia by increasing the attention given to this region at the university. In accordance with this mission, the Center made it a primary goal to encourage interdisciplinary academic projects with a focus in the Asia-Pacific region. This it has done in part by granting the "Taiwan Studies Research Travel scholarship" each year to several students of George Mason University, enabling them to spend a few weeks in Taiwan researching a topic of their choice. This March, I was thrilled to learn that I was among those selected to receive the scholarship this summer. I leave this Sunday for the Far East.

The topic of my research will be the teaching of Confucianism in Taiwanese secondary and tertiary education, i.e., the quantity and quality of education in Confucian texts and principles that is received by Taiwanese students in middle school, high school, and college. In order to gain a good understanding of the issue, I will need, for example, to investigate different perspectives on the theme of Confucius in the curriculum, including those of administrators, who determine the curriculum, teachers, who put it into effect, and students, who learn from it (theoretically). I will share more about my research, and, of course, my findings, on this blog after the trip begins.

My acquaintance with Confucianism began in earnest this past semester, in a course taught by George Mason professor Dr. John Paden, a highly esteemed scholar and expert in international affairs. In our unit on China, I read the Analects (the collected sayings and discourses of Confucius) and wrote on Confucian ideals in education. Although in my work I barely scratched the surface of what is an ancient and very complex system of ethics and philosophy, my interest in Confucianism grew during this study. In the end, I proposed to CAPEC a research topic very similar to the one above, so that, if I received the grant, I might continue to study Confucianism and its continuing effect on Asian societies. Since I received the grant, this is what I will be doing very soon.