University Daily Kansan
Page 5
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An English poet, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), once said, "East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet."
From the 13th century when the first Westerner, Marco Polo (1254-1324), an Italian traveler, first reached China (then called Cathay), to the 20th century, this phrase has been a challenge to the world.
STUDENTS IN THE PROGRAM have to consider it as a second major, Robert A. Burton, assistant professor of oriental languages and literature and the director of Eastern Civilization Programs, said. The major may be, for example, economics, geography, political science or sociology.
The program thus emphasizes language training together with crossdepartmental course work in various other fields. It also works in conjunction with the University foreign language sound laboratory, Burton said.
The student must also have at least two years of Chinese of Japanese and the senior seminar, course 97. in East Asian Studies.
NEVERTHELESS, within that period, there have been innumerable programs established opposing Kipling's idea. Their efforts have been fruitful in bringing the East and West closer together and they have also helped an optimism in future East-West relations to flourish.
THE 23 STUDENTS enrolled in the program also have access to the East Asian Studies Library, Burton continued. It is located in Watson Library, and contains more than 22,000 volumes of material on Oriental languages, literature and culture.
KU, in its East Asian Studies program, is evidence of a local active interest in improving East-West relations.
The director of KU's Center for East Asian Studies is Thomas R. Smith (Ph.D., Columbia), a professor of geography. He said the goal of the program was to give students an opportunity to learn about Oriental languages and culture.
The program started in 1959.
Many of the volumes are written in Chinese and Japanese but there are some written in Western languages.
The Center's graduate program leads to a certificate in East Asian Studies at the M.A. level, or to a doctorate with emphasis on East Asia in one of the participating departments.
KU's East Asian program also participates in a 10-week summer institute along with the University of Colorado at Boulder and Washington University of St. Louis.
THIS SUMMER the institute will be at Washington University and will last from June 16 to August 25. It is mostly work and such play as takes place will be in the target languages—Chinese and Japanese.
The variety of 10-credit courses in which one may enroll are: elementary, intermediate or advanced Chinese; or, elementary, intermediate or advanced Japanese.
The institute is open to all students interested and students must apply to the Department of Chinese and Japanese at Washington University by this weekend.
The tuition for this institute is $25 per credit hour and $300 for room and board. There are usually scholarships, for full or partial expenses, awarded on the basis of need.
THE CENTER also has exchange programs with universities in Japan, Hong Kong and Hawaii. It presently has four students participating in such programs, Smith said. Two are studying in a junior-year-abroad program in Hong Kong and the other two are doing semi-reportorial research work in Hawaii and Japan
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search work in Hawaii and Japan. Commenting on the popularity of East Asian studies on the national level, Burton said, "The area is becoming immensely popular. In the language area, there are three openings for every Ph.D. graduate available and in other areas the need is also very great.
"Financially, governmental and foundational support have also added impetus," he continued. "Our government has labeled Japanese and Chinese as two critical languages and has an increasing awareness of the need for well developed specialists who can deal competently with the area.
"ANOTHER FACT worthy of much concern," he said, "is that whether we like China or not, we must realize that she exists and is a pivotal power of her region."
Kipling's pessimism may have had some validity at some time but not today, Charles Berg, Lawrence junior and a student in the program, said.
"I was in Japan for two years," he said, "and I gained a deep interest in this area because I was able to associate with the people of that part of
the world, to understand them and, as a result, to gain a deep appreciation of them.
"I THINK the two parts of the world are growing closer together in many other ways in spite of Red China," he continued. "Even the government of Red China is a Western idea and many of its tools of modernization are Western."
ANOTHER STUDENT in the program, Sujane Classen, Hoisington junior, said the realization that KU had such a program of East Asian studies was a contributing factor in her coming here.
Berg intends to continue his study of the area in graduate school and hopes some day to return to Japan and work as a teacher or in some diplomatic position.
There is a great need for students to expand their knowledge about all peoples and to understand their problems in the various cultural contexts, he said. This would contribute very much to bringing the East and West together.
"I first became interested in the area in high school," she said. "This was mainly due to my association with a Chinese friend."
Miss Classen started out with Chinese as her choice for a language requirement. She gave no special reason for this. She said she was even discouraged by many friends who warned her that the language was very difficult.
"But I wanted to see for myself what it would be like," she said. "I'm enjoying it very much."
MISS CLASSEN SAID she plans to continue in the field in graduate school and that her ultimate goal is to teach Chinese on the high school level.
"Everyone has a great interest in
the Orient because it is so mysterious and unknown — especially to Westerners," she continued, "There is a rapidly increasing need for teachers in this area so I'm very optimistic about my chances of using what I learn."
"I feel that I am contributing to the process of better understanding between East and West through my studying the East Asian area," she said, "Only when both sides succeed in this understanding of each other will there be a world where our studies in any area will mean anything."
Goff to Theater Congress
Dr. Lewin A. Goff, director of the University Theatre at the University of Kansas, has been named one of five United States delegates to the 11th International Theater Institute Congress to be held June 20-27 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Dr. Goff is secretary of the committee on training for the professional theater. He will be gone from Lawrence the last half of June.
This will be the third of the biennial theater congresses for Dr. Goff. He attended the 10th in Warsaw, Poland, in 1963 and the 9th in Vienna, Austria, in 1961.
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