This field school will focus on comparative cultural and artistic practices associated with community identity in China. There are pre-residency, residency and post residency requirements for the field school, with the pre and post residency components occurring online. The residency component will take place in Beijing from July 5-July 19, 2011.

Participants in this field school will experience and investigate two cultural districts near Beijing: Jiangou Village and Song Zhuang. Jiangou is a pilgrimage destination situated near an important temple, and has a nascent tourist industry. Song Zhuang is a cluster of villages that have become the home of several thousand contemporary artists. Participants will investigate, document, compare, and contrast the cultural development of these two districts. Emphasis will be placed on discovering how the creative process and individual and collective identity occurs in these everyday settings—especially in light of the ways in which these districts are attracting regional, national, and international attention. Participants in the field school will contribute the results of their investigations for posting to ChinaVine.org.

This website has several sections, reachable through sidebar navigation or by these links:

ChinaVine connections (links to the ChinaVine site and related social media sites)

Blog stream (our primary point of contact throughout the field school)

Orientation (pre-residency; June 20-July 2, 2011; required & online)

Onsite residency/fieldwork (July 5-July 19, 2011; required & on-site)

Materials processing (post-residency; August 1-August 15, 2011; required & online)

Each of these sections will contain information specific to that segment of the field school, such as schedules, assignments, related media materials/readings, and links to discussion boards or collaborations spaces. Some of these sections may be password-protected, and if you are registered for the field school you will be given the password beforehand.

For instructions about this site in general (the same ones that were emailed to all students), navigate to this page.