New partnerships advance Chinese education

Bryant offers tours of Newport mansions in Chinese and establishes educational partnership with the largest private museum in China.

Jinchuan-Bryant Educational Center

With the Olympics less than a month away, China is increasingly in the world spotlight.

At Bryant, the focus on China is nothing new. At the end of the spring semester, Bryant launched several new programs and initiatives to help students and the community as a whole to learn more about one of the global economy’s growing powers.

In May, Bryant announced that its U.S.-China Institute would team up with the Preservation Society of Newport County to translate the organization’s printed tour scripts into Mandarin. Periodically, the Institute also will provide a Mandarin-speaking tour guide for Chinese groups visiting the Preservation Society’s most illustrious properties.

(L-R) Suzanne Sung '11 (Beijing, China) Bryant President Ronald K. Machtley, Bryant's U.S.-China Institute Director Hong Yang, Preservation Society of Newport County CEO and Executive Director Trudy Coxe, and Dongni Wan ' 10 an exchange student from China University of Geosciences. The students are completing the oral and written translations for the Preservation Society of Newport County.

“Travel and tourism in Rhode Island is a $4.7 billion industry,” says Denise Schwerin, assistant director for business services at Bryant’s U.S.-China Institute. “Creative partnerships like the one with The Preservation Society of Newport County will help ensure that Rhode Island is a welcoming destination for the increasingly mobile Chinese tourist.”

More than 10,500 Chinese-speaking tourists visited the Newport mansions last year. Museum officials expect that number to grow as an estimated 100 million Chinese travel outside their country by 2020.

“We are thrilled to have this assistance from Bryant’s U.S.-China Institute,” says Trudy Coxe, Preservation Society CEO and executive director. “We currently offer printed tour scripts in several languages. With Chinese-speaking tourists making up a large and growing segment of the Newport Mansions’ visitors, the ability to offer them tours in their own language will enhance their experience and make the mansions more attractive as a destination.”

Chinese Tea House located at Marble House in Newport.

Hands-on history lesson

The day before undergraduate Commencement, Bryant unveiled another major effort that establishes educational and cultural programs with China’s largest private museum. Bryant President Ronald K. Machtley and Fan Jianchuan, president of Jianchuan Group, a major real estate development company in China, announced a partnership for educational and cultural collaboration. Fan is the founder and president of the Jianchuan Museum Complex, which contains more than two million historical and cultural relics – many of which are from his personal collection.

The agreement calls for:

Establishment of a Bryant University Education Center at the Jianchuan Museum
Joint research projects
Bryant student internships and short-term educational visits for the Bryant community at Jianchuan Museum
Educational visits to Bryant by Jianchuan Museum administrators, researchers, and staff

(L-R) Fan Jianchuan, president of Jianchuan Group, a major real estate development company in China and Bryant President Ronald K. Machtley sign an agreement for educational and cultural collaboration as Hong Yang, director of Bryant's U.S.-China Institute looks on.

In 2005, Bryant launched the U.S.-China Institute and created an agreement with the China University of Geosciences (CUG) in Wuhan that called for students and faculty exchanges and plans to establish a joint graduate program in environmental science.

In November 2007, Bryant and the CUG conducted a live video conference to encourage research collaboration. Economics Professor Joe Ilacqua and History Professor Judy Barrett Litoff, who presented a paper as part of video conference, spent two weeks in China in June. They met with students and faculty at CUG and toured different cities in China as part of an international faculty development seminar titled “Diversity and Social Change on the Southwest Frontier.”

(L-R) Fan Jianchuan, president of Jianchuan Group, a major real estate development company in China and Bryant President Ronald K. Machtley shake hands after signing an agreement.

Currently, 10 Bryant students are studying at CUG, through a China immersion program. In the fall, Bryant will begin offering an environmental science major that includes a China component.

7/10/08