CLC Cultural Thursday Event on October 3 : China

The next CLC Cultural Thursday presentation is headed to Beijing, China, where speaker, Spencer Hartsock, spent five months as a student at Minzu University.  Through the worldwide Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) program, he received credits in Anthropology and the Chinese language. 

“As I had no prior knowledge of the Chinese Language, and my teacher spoke no English, the intensive Chinese class was imperative!” Spencer pointed out.  “I was given an orientation by a Tibetan at my school, where he taught me to use body language, some cultural interactions and signs to produce communication.”  With that and some minimal orientation on basic international travel skills, Spencer traveled to Tibet and throughout Qinghai province.  

Mr. Hartsock will speak to the misconceptions he had prior to his travel study program and how meeting the people and entering areas away from ‘foreigners and tourists’ introduced him to ‘The other China’.  His professor and guide, Patrick Lucas, has lived in China for many years, and provided a wide scope of ideologies, ethnic  communities  in relation to the Han majority and a reflection on governments, their peoples and policies. 

His travels included a week stay with monks in a Tibetan monastery, visits to local schools, tours of industrial areas and, of course, new cuisine.  “For meat eaters, (China) was a dream come true. Even when I tried to find vegetarian food, meat seemed to find its way in!” add Hartsock.

The China Cultural Thursday event will be on October 3rd beginning at noon in the Lecture Hall, E354.  It is free and open to the public.  Contact Jan Kurtz, 855-8183 for questions or wish to know more about the Resource Center of the Americas at CLC.   

Coming on November 7:   Meeting our Neighbor:  The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe