Grier/Woods Presbyterian China Initiative

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Grier/Woods Presbyterian China Initiative Fellowships

Faculty fellowships (two each year at $18,000 each) will be awarded to faculty pursuing research projects on China-related topics or themes during the academic year. These fellowships relieve faculty from teaching during one semester so that they can pursue research, most often off-campus and usually in China.

Application information for 2010-2011 is available here.

Grier/Woods Presbyterian China Initiative announcement


The Grier/Woods Presbyterian China Initiative Travel Awards

Each year, 2-3 faculty travel awards at $5,000 each will be made for faculty who wish to broaden or deepen their expertise on topics relating to China and who can demonstrate how this travel will contribute to curriculum development. Priority will be given to those who will add a new dimension to undergraduate course offerings.

Application information for 2010-2011 is available here.

Grier/Woods Presbyterian China Initiative announcement

 

2009-10 Awards

The Carolina Asia Center is pleased to announce the 2009-10 awardees for the Grier/Woods Presbyterian Initiative Fellowships in Chinese Studies and Grier/Woods Presbyterian Initiative China Travel Awards.

The Carolina Asia Center’s Advisory Committee considered applications from faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences and has awarded two Fellowships and two travel awards. These were:

The Grier/Woods Presbyterian Initiative Fellowships in Chinese Studies 2009-10

Gang Yue (Asian Studies), China's Tectonic Shifts of 2008: How Disasters and the Olympics Reveal Ideological Fault Lines and Re-Shape the Intellectual Landscape

Dr. Yue will conduct research for a book manuscript which attempts to capture a defining moment of history in the making by analyzing the ideological 'fault lines' and their re-alignment, chronicled through the major events of 2008. The key issues include the new alliance of statism and populism, as a result of the communist party's renewed mass mobilization during crises and its ideological and policy shift in favor of rural and interior China; an emerging form of internally-defined patriotism based on the ideas and ideals of citizenship, volunteerism, and civil society that begins to change the century-old, externally-oriented nationalism. In addressing the pivotal question of 'whither China,' the book will take stock of what has led China to this point of no return and look forward to emerging possibilities that will determine China's future course of action in an increasingly 'glocalized' world. Dr. Yue intends a book of political-intellectual history aimed at capturing 'the national scene.' He proposes that the narrative accounts will be inspired and enriched by an anthropological perspective to include select case studies of grass-root social engagement in response to the major events of 2008. With the educated public audience in mind, the book is intended to counterbalance journalistic and think-tank punditry that has so far dominated public perception of contemporary China.

Michelle King (History), Between Birth and Death: The Moral Universe of Female Infanticide in Late Nineteenth Century China

Dr. King will work on a manuscript for a book entitled Between Birth and Death: The Moral Universe of Female Infanticide in Late Nineteenth Century China. It examines both Western and Chinese rhetoric on female infanticide in China at a critical moment in time when combating its practice was transformed from a local social issue to a cultural clash of international proportions. She argues that while female infanticide in China stood as a distinct, external object of study for nineteenth century Western observers, Chinese gentry writing against the practice inscribed it within a larger moral universe, as part of a range of acts employing moral suasion. The comparison of Western and Chinese responses highlights how both worldviews were culturally determined and not universal, contrary to contemporary assumptions. The book will move beyond the stereotypically negative description of late nineteenth century Chinese gentry as xenophobic, conservative and ignorant, offering instead an understanding of the social values they affirmed.

Grier/Woods Presbyterian China Initiative Travel Awards 2009-10

Gang Yue (Asian Studies)
Topic: China's Tectonic Shifts of 2008: How Disasters and the Olympics Reveal Ideological Fault Lines and Re-Shape the Intellectual Landscape

In order to complete the proposed project, Dr. Yue needs to travel to China during 2009-10. He plans to collect updated information, chiefly internally-published or unpublished documents and data regarding the reconstruction of schools and other public facilities destroyed or damaged by the earthquake. These materials are not available through library acquisition. His itinerary will also include two rural villages affected by the earthquake, one Han Chinese and the other Tibetan, that he visited in Summer 2008. His field work will contribute directly and indirectly to his teaching about China and Tibet.

Wei-Cheng Lin (Art)
Topic: Revisiting Dunhuang Cave 61: Representing and Relocating a Buddhist Sacred Mountain

Dr. Lin will conduct research on Dunhuang Cave 61, which was built in the mid-tenth century and is renowned for an enormous mural inside the cave that depicts a panoramic view of Mt. Wutai, the sacred mountain of bodhisattva Mañju?? located a thousand miles away in present-day Shanxi province. Dunhuang Cave 61 is a masterpiece in Chinese Buddhist art, but its meaning and the purpose it served by representing the sacred geography inside a cave have never been properly discussed. Dr. Lin proposes to address these issues by investigating the cult of Mañju?? as transmitted and developed in Dunhuang and iconographies created peculiar to this development. He will examine the ways in which the sacred mountain was imagined and transferred by relocating it visually to Dunhuang in the outlying area of China. This critical aspect of Chinese visual culture and religious practice will provide new insights in his current teaching on topics related to Buddhist art and the cultural interchanges between China and its western regions.