China

Associate Professors Maurer-Fazio (Economics) and Yang (Chinese)

During the fall semester 2003, Bates students, including entering first-year students, can study Chinese language, culture, and economics in Nanjing, China. Nanjing served as China's capital for six dynasties and has a recorded history dating back to the Warring States Period (476-221 B.C.E.). Today Nanjing is a modern metropolis of 4.5 million people, and one of China's major cultural centers. In addition to their course work, students have the opportunity to undertake lessons in martial arts, Tai Chi Chuan, Chinese painting, calligraphy, and traditional Chinese music. No prior experience with Chinese language is required.

The program begins in late August with one-week orientation on the Bates campus, which provides information on social conditions in China, teaches basic Mandarin sentence patterns and phrases, and prepares students to get along in Chinese society. Between September and December, students continue language instruction in Nanjing, and take two courses taught by Bates faculty. Students live at Nanjing University.

Courses

BSAN 001. Self and Society in Chinese Culture: Classics and Folktales. This course explores concepts of self and society expressed in classics and reflected in traditional tales, popular stories, and legends. How does selfhood differ in East and West? How do heroes and protagonists diversely express their authors' vision? How do stories, poems, and plays express and/or reveal different views on interpersonal relationships? The first half of the course is devoted to the reading of classical texts of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, and the second half to literary works in which these ideas are reflected. Open to first-year students. S. Yang.

BSAN 002. China's Economy: Selected Topics. China has experienced stellar economic growth and performance in the post-Mao period. Its economy is now the world's third largest. One hundred and sixty million people have been raised above the poverty line — one of the most significant improvements in human welfare in history. The dynamism of China's economy creates opportunities and challenges for itself, its trading partners, and its East Asian neighbors. This course investigates the policies and institutions that have contributed to China's economic and social development as well as some of the controversial issues that challenge China today. Topics include the decollectivization of agriculture, the surplus rural labor force, family planning policies, the Three Gorges Dam, the reform of the social security system, the effects of reforms of women's status, China's entry into the World Trade Organization, and environmental effects of economic growth. Open to first-year students. M. Maurer-Fazio.

BSAN 003. Intensive Chinese I. Open to first-year students. Staff.

BSAN 004. Intensive Chinese II. Open to first-year students. Staff.

Russia

Professor Aschauer (Economics) and Associate Professor Browne (Russian)

During the fall semester 2003, Bates students, including entering first-year students, have the opportunity to live among St. Petersburg's people and explore their city, its history, and cultural life. St. Petersburg is one of the most beautiful and cultured cities in the world, but to Russians it signifies much more. In 1703 Tsar Peter the Great founded the city as part of his project to westernize Russia. Since then St. Petersburg has been the focus of debate about Russian identity. The capital of tsarist Russia for two centuries, the city has maintained many of the great cultural institutions of the era — the Hermitage Museum and the Kirov Ballet and Opera — in completely changed circumstances. In the twentieth century, Peter's capital was the center of momentous struggles: the Russian Revolution, which overthrew the tsarist empire and established communist rule, and the invasion of Hitler's army, which besieged the city for two years. In 2003, as St. Petersburg celebrates its 300th anniversary, this great city re-examines its place as a cosmopolitan, Western-looking center for the new Russia.

The program begins in mid-August, when students undertake a three-week intensive Russian language course at the Nevsky Institute. From September to December they continue language study and take courses from Bates faculty in English. During this time they live with Russian families in St. Petersburg. No prior study or knowledge of Russian is required.

Courses

BSAR 001. From Kommunizm to Kapitalizm: Economic Transition in the Former Soviet Republics. The economies of Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet republics have changed tremendously since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. As the structure of the economy has moved away from the "plan" to the "market," prices have been "liberalized" and state enterprises have been "privatized." In order to properly understand the nature and extent of these changes, students survey the performance of the Russian and Soviet economies from the end of the nineteenth century to the present. Topics include economic performance under the last of the tsars, war and communism, the New Economic Policy, the theory of economic planning, economic performance of the Soviet Union, transition theory and performance, and economic prospects for the twenty-first century. Open to first-year students. D. Aschauer.

BSAR 002. St. Petersburg: Peter's Impossible City. Founded by Peter the Great during Russia's lengthy war with Sweden, Sankt Pieter Burkh was celebrated as Peter's "window on the West." Peter the Great himself called it "paradise." But Peter's paradise was, for most Russians of the early eighteenth century, nothing more or less that the city of an after-death world founded by the tsar-antichrist. Sankt Pieter Burkh — later known as St. Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad, or simply Piter, as more recent inhabitants affectionately call it — has survived domestic and foreign enemies, natural and civil disasters, and revolutions of all varieties. Today "Peter's impossible city" occupies a unique place in the Russian psyche. In this course students examine the city's symbolic place in Russian culture and its role in modern Russian history from 1703 to 2003. Open to first-year students. D. Browne.

BSAR 003. Intensive Russian I. Open to first-year students. Staff.

BSAR 004. Intensive Russian II. Open to first-year students. Staff.