A. Selection and Notification: What improvements should be made in such aspects of the program as: selection procedures, notification of awards, preliminary announcements and program information, general communications? These went well from the perspective of the grantee. The purposes of the program would be furthered, however, by deeper inquiry into the motivation of the host institution for requesting a Fulbright lecturer. My general impression is that many institutions that get Fulbright lecturers don't particularly want the substantive expertise, but are happy to get a free English teacher.
B. Washington Briefing: What comments or suggestions do you have for the improvement of briefing? Your reactions to printed materials; and assistance in the host country as pertinent. These were fine. See my interim report.
C. Transportation Arrangements: What comments or suggestions do you have with respect to transportation, baggage, or shipping of effects? These worked well.
D. Financial: Comments are desired on such items as the adequacy of the stipend, cost of living; local or other taxes on goods or income. See my interim report.
E. Logistical Arrangements Abroad: Information on the following items will be helpful to program officers and future grantees. Please comment on availability and adequacy of the items described.
(1) Housing: See my interim report. We had some additional problems with the staff of the foreign guesthouse. They refused to arrange for International Direct Dialing, thereby making it impossible for me to do research by computer hookup, even though they did this for another resident. We were inadvertently double-charged for long-distance charges, but received a refund only for months in which I had saved a receipt. When the "211" national inspection team was in the hotel part of our guesthouse for a week to determine if our university would be one to receive special funding from the national government, we were required to enter the building by a separate entrance, so as to avoid any contact with them. In general our relations with the management of the guesthouse were irritating, while our relations with the waiban, with the department, and with the actual guesthouse workers, were excellent.
(2) Household Furniture and Furnishing: See my interim report.
(3) Food: See my interim report.
(4) Schooling for Children: See my interim report. During the second semester my 4-year-old daughter went to kindergarten full time, and her tuition was raised to 500 Yuan/month. She now chatters in Chinese, sings Chinese songs, recites the San Zi Jing (a kind of long didactic nursery rhyme), and communicates well with Chinese who speak no English. We are extremely pleased with this part of our experience. My son continued to stay home.
(5) Local Transportation: See my interim report.
(6) Clothing: See my interim report.
(7) Medical and Dental Services: See my interim report. We took my son to the university clinic when he had a fever. They prescribed lots of little pills, plus a shot. They used a disposable needle when we intervened (and paid 1 Yuan). He soon recovered.
F. Suggestions: Discuss freely any administrative matters you may wish to comment upon and add any recommendations. I am uneasy when I see U.S. government resources used, however indirectly, to encourage grantees to influence Congress members to support program funding.
1. Description of study, research, teaching or lecturing assignment
A. For Lecturers or Teachers: Please describe in detail the academic assignment. The intent here is to provide information useful to future grantees offering instruction in the same subject matter field. It would be helpful if you would include the organization of instruction; relation of your work to the curriculum; the role and status of the exchange teacher or lecturer. Specific comments are also welcome on such facts as: preparation and level of students; size of classes; voluntary or required attendance; voluntary or examination courses, etc. This is covered in my interim report. During the second semester I taught 2 classes, special topics in international law and comparative constitutional law. Each met one afternoon per week for three hours. Each was given 2 hours of credit. Because the courses are not integral to the curriculum, the students who actually stayed enrolled for a grade dwindled down to ten. Another ten or fifteen came to class often. The "core" of ten students prepared well, participated in class, and learned a lot. I also learned a lot from them. I continued calling on students and successfully demanding class participation, right up until the end.
2. Do you feel you were able to accomplish the objective of the assignment? (Was the objective clear?; were you able to implement any innovative ideas?) My objectives of getting a refreshing change of educational and legal perspective were well met. My objectives of giving future lawyers and law teachers the real experience of legal reasoning within the western legal tradition were well met, but unfortunately on a fairly small scale. Graduate students who got more than "exposure" were fewer than fifteen. I tried to magnify the effect of my Fulbright year by organizing a conference for young teachers from around China. This came off very successfully.
4. What problems did you encounter that could also apply to future grantees? (For example: academic, language, research.) I solved the problem of insuring that casebooks could be kept by the students (this will always be a problem with institutions that treat books as treasures to be hoarded}. I had all of the books (including books donated by law book publishers) delivered to my apartment, and handed them out physically myself.
5. Please recount occasions on which you addressed or spoke to local audience, participated in cultural or professional meetings, or wrote for local publications. None apart from the opportunity created by my organizing the conference on international law here.
6. Please evaluate your experience in terms of its; (a) professional value; (b) personal or social value; and (c) contribution to international understanding. (a) enormous professional value to me; (b) enormous personal and social value to me and my family; (c) very valuable contribution to international understanding on a very small scale.
7. Suggestions: Discuss freely any aspect of the grant, or the total experience, and offer any recommendations which you believe will enhance the program. USIA should be more willing to do a hard-headed cost-benefit analysis of Fulbright lectureship grants to China. I was able to magnify the value of my Fulbright because of the international conference that I organized, but I was able to do this only because of two special factors: this was my second teaching Fulbright to China, and my native-Chinese wife helped me enormously. Without the conference, I would have been concerned about whether the large amount that the taxpayers paid for my grant was worth the benefit to the public interest, in terms of numbers of Chinese students and teachers who gained a real insight into western legal thought. It is fine for many additional Chinese students to improve their English or improve their chances to study abroad, but the taxpayers should not be paying Fulbright grants for that. Recent college graduates teach English here for a tenth of the cost. I heard stories about other Fulbrighters this year that concerned me even more along these lines.
Part III. Educational Resources and the Academic Program of the Institution of Affiliation
A. Educational Resources: 1. Books
(a) Please comment on the availability of text and reference works for your course(s) of instruction. Book sources including libraries, USIA, schools, or other academic institutions should be mentioned. Please see my interim report.
(b) Can books be ordered from the United States through local suppliers? What is the normal length of time from order to delivery? Please see my interim report. All books that I ordered through USIA arrived timely.
(c) Is the lack of textbooks a serious impediment to effective teaching? If so, what are the alternatives? Not under the Fulbright program. The biggest impediment is lack of adequate library resources.
(d) What should the visiting lecturer or teacher do before leaving the United States to meet his minimum book needs? Please see my interim report.
2. Collateral Resources: With a similar reference to the foregoing, please describe the availability and need for educational materials, audio-visual aids, and laboratory equipment. Are local purchasing channels available and adequate for grantee needs? If this is a reference to the library in the host university, please see my interim report. I know of no local bookstores in Guangzhou where English language law books can be obtained.
B. The Academic Program:Administrative organization (admission requirements, academic calendar, graduation or degree requirements); instructional organization (academic departments, basic curriculum, special or unique educational programs). The Law Department of Zhongshan University is part of the Law and Politics School of the university. I taught in the graduate program, which is a three-year program leading to a masters. Students take an exam to get admitted. There are three graduate majors in law: legal history, economic law, and international law. There are prescribed courses for the first and second years, while the third year consists largely of preparing a thesis (really a long paper), and includes a trip to another city in China to take advantage of the research sources of the other city. Academic calendar runs from August 25 to July 12, with a semester break for Chinese New Year of several weeks in January and February.
3. Organization of the Department of program in which the grantee taught. Please discuss such elements as: (a) Departmental specializations; (b) Courses offered in grantee's field of specialization; (c) Methods of instruction; (d) Examination requirements. Some of this is covered in my previous response. Other courses my students were taking included advanced language courses (English, Japanese, or another language), and international law "case analysis." Despite the name of the latter, the Socratic method does not really exist much in China, and very traditional teaching methods are used. There may be some discussion though, particularly in small classes.
As I mentioned above, I instigated a conference on public international law, held at my host institution in June, 1995. I am attaching the proposal as made to the the Ford Foundation, the agenda, and a post-conference description of the conference and its success. I originally wanted to have the conference the first week in June, so that we could invite scholars attending an International Law Association meeting scheduled for late May in Taipei. No approval from the State Education Commission could be obtained for the first week in June. We rescheduled for two weeks later, and things went pretty well then. I had to insist, politely but repeatedly, on small group discussion sessions, since conferences just aren't done that way in China.
The bottom line is that the conference was very valuable, and I'm glad to have undertaken it. I could not have done it without my wife. Both the school and the participants appreciated the conference a lot. We achieved our goals. And I learned a lot about negotiating with the Chinese.
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