Evan Dougal is a junior from Brown College who is studying electrical engineering. He is interested in the ways that cities can encourage technological innovation through municipal policy. Previously he was a fellow in the Center for Civic Engagement where he worked on engineering projects which directly benefited the city of Houston.
Hira is a junior at Rice University, where she is pursing degrees in Political Science and Policy Studies. She recently spent a in London, England where she researched the immigrant experience of Muslim groups to the UK. Recently chosen as a coach for the Interfaith Youth Core’s Leadership Institutes, Hira is spending her school year traveling the country to help coach future interfaith leaders. Hira is interested in learning about the religious landscape of Shanghai with a focus on the Muslim community. With interests in religion, public policy and politics, Hira is going to pursue law school and a career in public service.
We left Rice at 9pm on Thursday night and arrived in Shanghai after a about 17 hours of plane travel and a layover in Beijing on Saturday, March 1st. But even though we were tired, the first day in Shanghai did not disappoint.
We started the day by heading to our hotel at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. We settled into our rooms before having lunch at the hotel restaurant. The meal was great- lots of delicious vegetarian options. After lunch, we headed to the bank to exchange some money and then made our way to Starbucks. After connecting to some wifi and grabbing a coffee, we headed back to the hotel to have our first lecture of the trip.
Our first lecture was with two local area educators and covered the education system in Shanghai. We learned about the various school types in the city and how competitive it is for students to get through school here. Students have to place into competitive middle schools in order to get to the best high schools so that they can apply to the top schools in China and abroad. It was interesting to hear that much like the U.S., family income and background plays a significant role in determining a students chances of making it into the top schools.
After our lecture on education we headed to Nanjing Lu, Shanghai’s famous shopping street, for some dumplings and to check our Shanghai’s famous skyline. This was my favorite part of the day. The skyline is breathtaking and all of the shopping off of Nanjing Lu easily confirmed that I will be returning to this part of town during our free day this week. I can’t wait to see what’s in store these upcoming days because the first day was incredible!
The first day of our trip felt much longer than 24 hours. Our flight left Houston around 11:00 PM Thursday night, and we flew with in the darkness all the way to Beijing, more than a 15 hour flight. We arrived in Beijing at around 4:00 AM in the morning (local time) on Saturday, after crossing the international dateline. I personally didn’t manage to get much sleep on the flight, so I figured I was only going to be half awake the whole day. I was wrong; after a short domestic flight, we finally arrived in Shanghai and excitement counteracted sleep deprivation. To get to the city from the airport we took the maglev train which transported us at a speed greater than 180 mph! We had a delicious lunch in the faculty club of the university we are staying at. After lunch we took a quick walk in the area immediately around the campus. The streets were chaotic and packed with cars. The area nearby the university was filled with tall residential buildings. We barely made it back to the university in time for our afternoon lecture.
The lecture was with a high school teacher from one of the most selective public high schools in Shanghai. The education system in Shanghai sounded much different from my experience in the United States. In Shanghai the high schools are evaluated based on how many students get into top universities. The high school is actually split into two divisions, the “foreign” division which is made up of students with at least one parent with a foreign passport, and the “domestic” division. Students from the foreign division typically study abroad, while students from the domestic division mostly go to domestic Chinese universities. Because the students typically go to different kinds of universities, the curriculum is necessarily different between the two divisions. Chinese universities base their admission decisions almost entirely on the results of a standardized national examination, and so most of the work is based on preparing the students for the examinations.
After the lecture we traveled to the Bund using the subway. The Bund is the historic waterfront of the city, and from it you can see the new Pudong area where most of the skyscrapers have been been built. We had a delicious meal of steamed dumplings in the shopping area nearby. Finally we returned to the university to get some sleep.
Our first day was a day of travel and rain. The majority of us did not sleep very long or at all on the long flight over to China, so we were all a bit exhausted by the time we reached Shanghai. However, for the most part we were alert and awake because being in Shanghai is so exciting! I’ve been to this city before, but apparently I remembered it all wrong, because it’s surprising me at every turn. I didn’t remember all of the excessive lights – on bridges, buildings, trees, poles – that make the city light up beautifully after dark. I didn’t remember the streets lined with trees that are now bare in the winter but make the city look magical. Most of all, I didn’t remember the dazzling scenery at the Bund, where we visited in the rainy nighttime, shortly before we all finally crashed at dinner. Xiaolongbao (steamed dumplings with soup inside them) are perhaps my favorite Chinese dish, but even I was only half as excited as I should’ve been about the food because I was fighting exhaustion at that point in the day. I am glad that it only kicked in at dinner time, because the lecture on education in Shanghai that we had in the afternoon was very interesting, for two reasons: firstly because I am interested in education in Shanghai, and secondly because I was able to understand most of what they were saying and practice my Chinese skills. I hope that the rest of our days in this city will be equally as eye-opening, engaging, and fun!
Instructor: CJ Chen(Chen Jing，陈静) is a postdoctoral fellow of Chao Center for Asian Studies, who received her Ph.D. from Nanjing University (2009) and spent one year at Duke University as a visiting scholar from 2007-2008. Her research focuses on Cultural and New Media studies, especially on the influence of the New Media and the Internet on writing and modern literature. Before she joined Chao Center in the summer of 2012, she worked at the Institute of Arts and Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University as an Assistant Researcher since 2009.
This is blog of Urban Lab (Shanghai). It is a 1-credit, academic lab course that is attached to Poli 464: Comparative Urban Politics and Policy. As a new urban lab course, Shanghai Lab will examine the dynamics of urban politics and policy in an emerging global city—Shanghai. In addition to social, political, and economic issues, we will specifically focus on public media, media management, history and culture. Weekly class sessions will include lectures, case studies, guest lecturers, & group work on research projects. The lab also features an 8-day field research trip to Shanghai during Spring Break.
In Spring 2014, the “parent” course for Poli 347 will be Poli 464 Comparative Urban Politics and Policy. To enroll in the Shanghai Lab course (Poli 347) you must be registered for the parent course.
You can find applications on the Forms and Dates pages of this site. Or, you can also email Prof. Marschall (marschal@rice.edu) or Dr. Jing Chen (jing.chen@rice.edu) and request one.
The lab fee for the course will be around $2,500.
Students interested in enrolling in Poli 348 must first be admitted. Applications must be received by no later than November 13, 2013. Given space limitations (~12 students), you are advised to apply much earlier than this, preferably by October 15, 2013.
The program is open to all majors, and of course Asian Studies majors can apply AURA toward the cost.
Application for Poli 464/Urban Lab Buenos Aires/Shanghai/Istanbul
POLI 464: Comparative Urban Politics and Policy
This course offers a broad overview of urban politics and policies in cities around the world. We will examine how national, regional and local forces shape the processes and outcomes governance within and across cities and metropolitan areas, paying particular attention to critical problems and policies that affect urban centers: growth, immigration, class conflict, public order, service management, education, housing, transportation, environmental protection, sustainability, land-use planning and spatial competition.
The course is designed as a research seminar and will meet once weekly for a 3-hour session. Students must be registered for the Poli 464 course in order to participate in the Istanbul Lab (Poli 349) course. Please contact Prof. Marschall if you are interested in enrolling (marschal@rice.edu).
POLI 332: Urban Politics
This course examines the politics and public policies of local governments in the United States. In the first part of the course we will explore the historical growth and change of cities and suburbs, focusing on issues of race and class, the structure of local government, the development urban policy in the American federal system, and the various ways in which cultural values have contributed to American exceptionalism in residential patterns and the forms and functions of local jurisdictions. Our discussions will be organized around five specific waves of immigration and migration in the US: foreign immigration, the ‘great migration,’ suburbanization, the rise of the Sunbelt, and new immigration. We will assess how each of these population movements influenced the distribution of power both within and across local polities, and among federal, state, and local governments. In addition to examining how each of these population movements has shaped the demographic characteristics of cities and suburbs, we will also look at their effects on the nature of social, economic, and political problems in local jurisdictions, the policies developed to address local problems, and the resources and capacity of local governments to solve these problems. A second part of the course will survey various models of local politics in an attempt to better understand who has power in local politics and why economic interests play such an important role in urban governance. Finally, we will analyze several specific policy areas and assess the extent to which historical development and the various models of local politics help us understand contemporary policy processes and outcomes.
