Beijing, China
Courses, Costs, & Dates | Info for Admitted Students | Apply Now
Academic level: Undergraduate
Program dates: June 30 – August 11, 2012
Priority application deadline: March 1st
General application deadline: April 2nd
Please note: Applications will be accepted after the March 1st priority deadline on a space-available basis.
Total credits: 8 points required
Program focus: Chinese Language & Culture
“I would recommend this program to anyone who is willing to learn and do much more than the average study abroad program offers.” – Summer 2011 student
Click here to view the program flyer.
Program Directors
Shiqi Liao, Lecturer, Chinese Language; Chinese Language Coordinator, East Asian Studies.
Xudong Zhang, Professor of East Asian Studies & Comparative Literature; Chair, East Asian Studies.
Program Summary
Experience history in the making right before your eyes. NYU Summer in Beijing gives its students a unique opportunity to observe at close range the rapid socioeconomic and cultural change in a city with a history of three thousand years, five hundred of which as the nation's capital.
Today, Beijing is the unparalleled political, cultural, and educational center in the largest nation on earth. Overshadowed by the forever majestic Great Wall and Forbidden City, reshaped by some of the most audacious architectural projects in the world, Beijing sets the stage for the dazzling interplay of the old and new, the traditional and modern in its full complexity. It is a city amidst a hurried and conflicted remaking, typifying the drastic transformation of today's China. It is where the age of globalization is living its dream and reality. NYU Summer in Beijing aims to provide its students with the means of understanding this once-in-a-lifetime historical transformation in the dual context of lived experience as well as informed analysis.
Academics
The six week NYU Summer in Beijing program combines classroom study of the Chinese language, culture and society with field trips to allow students to observe the rapid economic and social changes taking place in the city. It offers intensive Chinese language courses from beginner through advanced levels, giving special attention to listening and speaking. More advanced students can take advantage of the third or fourth-year-level Chinese course to further improve their Chinese language proficiency and practice Chinese in real-life situations. All language classes are small in size and teaching excellence is central to each course.
The curriculum also includes content courses in English on Chinese history, literature, and civilization taught by NYU faculty. In addition, there are NYU faculty-coordinated guest lecture series on current topics on contemporary Chinese economy, politics, society, which is designed to introduce the leading scholars, intellectuals, journalists, writers, filmmakers, artists, educators, and business leaders to NYU students. The purpose of this lecture series, in addition to its inherent educational value, is to help NYU students establish personal contacts with the guest speakers whom they may find helpful in their future study in or on China.
NYU Summer in Beijing is hosted by Peking University, a school with special historical heritage and intellectual eminence that is simply unmatched by any other school in the country. Its students initiated the May 4th Movement, marking the official birth of modern China. Members of its faculty played leading role in the New Cultural Movement, which in many ways still defines the terms of China's on-going search for a new identity. Today, the school attracts the best students and teachers around the country. It boasts one of the largest and best research libraries in China, with a collection of more than four and half million items, counting, at one time, the young Mao Zedong among its employees.
All classes are held on Peking University's campus.
Housing & Meals
Students reside at Peking University's dorm for foreign students. For a two bedroom apartment-style dorm, a student will have his or her own air-conditioned room, with a shared living room and bathroom. It also comes with free internet connection. Students can eat at the hotel's in-house restaurant or Peking University's on-campus cafeteria.
Excursions
Weekly excursions include visits, within the city of Beijing, to museums, temples, and palaces and evening outings to Peking Opera and Chinese folk music performances. A long weekend trip to a destination outside Beijing is also included.
CONTACT INFO
NYU Office of Global Programs
110 East 14th Street, LOWER LEVEL
New York, NY 10003
t: 212-998-4433
f: 212-995-4103
summer.in.beijing@nyu.edu