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Nikalas Kryzanowski, News Editor and Lisa Bellano, Associate News Editor

news @theotherpress.ca

 

 

From New West to Shanghai: China program expands horizons

Nikalas
Kryzanowski

news editor

 

“After school from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. we’d explore the
city and then from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., it was all partying,”
said Sara Manana, a trip participant who signed up for the
program on a bit of a whim just two weeks before it started.
“We spent four weeks in Shanghai and then one week in
Beijing touring around. The best part of the trip was in
Shanghai because we got to do more exploring around the
city.”

That exploring included waking up at 7 a.m. for a once-
in-a-lifetime chance to see the Beijing Olympic torch pass

forget.

There was a variety of people in the program, from
arts students, political science majors to people who hadn’t
declared yet.

“The people on the trip were awesome. When you get
to spend six straight weeks seeing these people everyday,
you become friends fast. We still hang out now that we’re
back. Our perspectives have definitely changed. Many of us
are looking ahead to opportunities at SFU and the similar
kinds of programs that they have to offer.”

 

T Since adventurous Douglas Students got a
taste of the Far East last month as the Douglas College
China Field School gave them a hands-on learning
experience in the People’s Republic. The summer
intersession program allows students to learn in China
for five weeks while earning Douglas College credits in
Communications, Geography and Chinese Language.

Fees for the trip were $2600, which included roundtrip
airfare, accommodation most food and entry to historical
sites. Students were required to pay Douglas tuition fees for
the three courses they took. Teachers were from Douglas as
well.

through Shanghai. Though it went by in a bus due to the
throngs of people present, it is not something that she’ll soon

Students were accommodated at the college’s partner
school, Eastern China Normal University in downtown
Shanghai, where they were housed in dormitories and had
classes in the rooms below.

The students were in class from Monday to Thursday
from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. They had Fridays and weekends off, to
do their own thing or to go on planned excursions as a group
to the Great Wall and on a 40 km biking tour of tea fields
outside the city.

 

New Course to Cast a Critical Eye on the
Hollywood Dream Factory

By Matthew Steinbach

students,” he said.

He also intends to display to students the idea that
“what is history and how the things we do as historians
are different than the stories we tell ourselves.” This also
stands to serve as a bridge between people and how they
gain their historical background through popular media
and less through historical sources in this day and age; the
course intends to broaden their understanding of history.

The course will entail many case studies with
primary source background documents as well, and will
be a more abstract course. There will also be key books on
how history has' related to film in the past, and on how to
use scholarly source material while using popular media.

 

connections between what is factual and what is fiction
within history.

“After being a teacher for ten years [I became]
frustrated with students’ critical thinking and writing
skills; it is meant to be an introductory course that enables
students to produce better papers when they are discussing
history. This is a kind of English course for history

(ane in the fall will be an innovative
course to be known as “Understanding History through
Film.” The course contains a great deal of entertainment
sources, including many popular movies and other aspects
as well. History professor Dr. Jeff Schutts fashioned
the course as a way to educate students on how to make

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