ChinaVine’s First Field School

Song Zhuang (Photo Credit: Tomas Valladares - University of Oregon)

ChinaVine makes big strides this summer as Professors Doug Blandy and John Fenn will co-direct and embark on the first Beijing-Based Field School.  Focusing specifically on Public Culture and Heritage, this program will offer a unique opportunity for seven students from the University of Oregon, including both undergraduate and graduate students from various academic disciplines, as well as three Chinese national students. Their mission is to examine comparative cultural practices and experience the formation of community identity. Participants in this field school will investigate two specific cultural districts in Beijing: Gaobeidian Village and Song Zhuang. Both of these sites have been chosen to accent both the contemporary art and traditional culture of Beijing.

“I am excited about not only the possibility of introducing American students to  Chinese cultural heritage, but also learning from the Chinese nationals of their interpretations of the two sites,” remarks Blandy.

ChinaVine team visiting with visual artist Mr. Her in Song Zhuang (Photo Credit: Laurie Hicks - University of Maine)

For the past four years, Blandy and others associated with ChinaVine have been cultivating relationships in China. These relationships have been established through fieldwork and contribute largely to what ChinaVine is today, as well as the development of this summer’s field school.

As participants will investigate and document the two cultural districts, interesting comparisons and contrasts between cultural elements of Gaobeidian and Song Zhuang are bound to emerge. Where as Gaobeidian is a government facilitated “folklore village,” Song Zhuang remains a cluster of villages that have become the home of several thousand contemporary artists. Participants of the field school will have the opportunity to work along side specialists in Chinese art and culture.  A strong emphasis will be placed on discovering how the creative process and individual and collective identity occurs in these everyday settings that are also attracting regional, national and international attention. Participants will then contribute the results of their research and studies to the ChinaVine website which will further enforce the project’s dedication to interpreting China’s cultural heritage for English speaking/reading audiences.

Fabric Artist in Gaobeidian (Photo Credit: Jess Yates - University of Oregon)

What makes this field school unique of its kind is participants will have the opportunity to engage in multi-media based fieldwork, as the program includes both virtual and on-site sessions. The field school consists of a two week online orientation to China’s cultural heritage and fieldwork methods, followed by two weeks on-site, and lastly, a two week online post residency focusing on preparing materials for posting on the ChinaVine website.

Moreover, interacting with the residents of the two districts will be integral to this experience.

“One of the pleasures of field work in China is the opportunities that occur through happenstance; meeting a street artist, or being introduced to a new neighborhood, or even a new folkloric tradition,” further remarks Blandy.

Through such folkloristic methods, we look forward to what participants will investigate and document of the cultural development of both Gaobeidian and Song Zhuang. For more information and news on this upcoming summer’s field school, stay tuned for next week’s post featuring other scholars and artists who will contribute to the field school experience.