Chinese & Chinese Studies

PLU Gateway in Chengdu Transcript

[video: Clips of the China Gateway program. Dancers in elaborate, colorful outfits, twirling long ribbons. Students in a museum look at sculpture. Outside of a meticulously designed garden sits a traditional dragon statue. Students ride bikes down a city street.]

 

[video: Devon’s voice comes in over more clips of China. Big buildings with old and new architecture. Students walk out of an old building with gold detailing and intricate roofs. Students walk over a rainforest bridge on a foggy day. A shot from outside a temple with colorfully painted blocks built into the roof. A panda chews bamboo in an enclosure.]

Devon: China is often presented to us in the US as this enigma there were so many stereotypes that I’ve heard or go around and you hear these stories but to really

[video: cut to Devon, who sits outside on PLU’s campus, a cherry blossom tree in bloom behind her.]

Devon: understand what that means and what’s going on sometimes you just

[video: Devon’s voice continues over more footage from China. A line of boats on a waterway, lily pads in the foreground. A red structure with curved roofs in an urban area. A view out of a car window driving through the city. Bikes passing through a city street. Students laughing as they pedal a tandem bike. A student points a camera to take a photo.]

Devon: have to take the leap and go for it and put yourself in that environment

[video: Kimberly sits at a table, a white wall behind her.]

Kimberly: being able to actually be there and experiencing for yourself and breaking down these barriers you hear about China

[video: Kimberly’s voice continues over clips from China. A busy city street, bikes and buses move quickly. Red paper lanterns hang in rows down a street, a skyline of skyscrapers behind them. Students up high on a traditional structure point down over the railing at things below. People climb the stairs of a white structure.
Kimberly: China can tell you who they really are where you can really learn from the people themselves and see it with your own eyes
[video: clips continue as Devon’s voice comes in.]

Devon: and bring those experiences back with you that can help inform the

[video: Return to Devon outside with the cherry blossom tree.]

Devon: rest of your life

[video: Return to clips of China as Paul’s voice comes in. Crowds mill around a city street with market shops. A professor shows students around Chinese sights. Students sit at a table together in a patio space, talking. Students look at a Beijing Subway map.]

Paul Manfredi, Chengdu program director: obviously there are a lot of students studying in China by far the majority of those students are

[video: A red shape of China appears with the flag’s five stars on the left side. As Paul speaks about the locations, they appear on the map: Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu.]

Paul: principally in two cities which is Beijing in Shanghai those are the largest cities in the most cosmopolitan cities our program is not there our program is in western China which is a

[video: Return to clips of China. A waterfall with purple flowers. A garden with a birdbath.
Paul: very distinctive place distinctive because it’s far from the center it’s far from those cosmopolitan centers
[video: Paul sits in his office. Behind him are shelves of books. From the edge of one shelf hangs a small Chinese piece of art.]

Paul: one of the things that you find in a place like Chengdu where our students study is

[video: Paul’s voice continues over footage from China. An indoor, almost cavernous space with statues of religious figures, the falls are lined with figures carved into the stone. A street lined with trees, a red building sits at the end.]

Paul: the kind of preservation of an older kind of Chinese mentality it’s a little bit slower and it’s a little bit more authentic
[Music]
[Applause]

[video: a shot follows a lift up the side of a mountain, greenery on either side.]

[Music]

[video: A shot of an old Chinese building overlooking a large waterway.]

 

[video: Return to Devon sitting outside.]

Devon: we’ll study tour at the beginning of the trip

[video: Devon’s voice continues over more clips. A historical building with intricate gold paintings on blue-green panels. Mountain scenery. A server ladles soup into a bowl at a restaurant at a table. A photo from outside an ornately designed temple. A panning view over Forbidden City. Students walk the Great Wall of China. A shot from above of cars driving down a city street. Students sit around a table eating Chinese dishes.]

Devon: expose you to what China is before you actually have to sit down and start studying it’s part of what makes the Gateway program one of the best programs I think is out there to experience China helps get all your excitement out and satisfies your need to travel so that
when you get to Chengdu you’re ready to settle down and make that city your new home
[Music]

[video: Students walk through the airport. Students move through a crowd outside.]

 

[video: the camera focuses up close on Kimberly’s face, the green background behind her is blurred. Her voice comes in. Clips of China come in again, busy city streets, students wave at the camera as they walk on a city street. Kimberly sits in an ornately carved wooden chair.]

Kimberly: for those who know me I have low self-esteem going to China you just felt you were like a mini celebrity so it would be kind of like a image boost and just like I’m gonna be who I want to be

[video: Return to Kimberly sitting at a table.]

Kimberly: because if people from China can accept me the way I am then why should Americans
[Music]

[video: Clips continue. A shot of a mountain through tree branches. A clip from the backseat of a car looking through the windshield at night, lights ahead. Students spinning dishes of food on a Lazy Susan at a table. A woman carves a statue of a Chinese soldier in clay. A moped driving through the city. A gold statue of a dragon.]

Paul: It seems to me in the context of our global situation there is no more important culture to study than China right now in the company years because what happens in China actually affects all of us on the planet and so fully appreciating what’s going on with China is really fully appreciating what’s going on here
[Music]

[video: Wildlife outside. Pandas in an enclosure eating bamboo. A statue of a chicken. A woman dancing with colorful ribbons on a stage.]