When imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize in early October, Chinese state media immediately blacked out the news.
But the censorship of Liu, who was involved in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, does not mark the first time censorship issues have arisen in the country. As Duke expands its academic and service programs abroad, such censorship issues are increasingly relevant to American academia.
Regarding limitations on the curriculum taught to students in China, Yan Li, program director at the Asian Pacific Studies Institute and an administrator of Duke’s study abroad programs in China, explained that although faculty members are not restricted in the content of their lectures, they understand that there are certain limitations to what they can discuss.
“Faculty organize their classes as they see fit, but we do occasionally have to remind them that China has restrictions, and they have to be aware of how far they can go on certain topics,” Li wrote in an e-mail.
Ralph Litzinger, a cultural anthropology professor and director of DukeEngage Beijing, said he plans to cover topics such as HIV and AIDS, prostitution and show several documentary films, though some of those topics may be banned in China. Litzinger noted that certain issues such as Liu’s Nobel Prize cannot be openly discussed in the country.
“Duke has a long tradition of critical studies around feminism, globalization, sexuality, film—everything,” Litzinger said. “The question is, when we go to China are we going to give up that tradition?”
As Duke’s programs in China continue to grow, Litzinger noted that faculty members will have to be more strategic in maintaining spaces for open deliberation and discussion.
And Duke is not the only institution establishing programs in Asia. According to a recent Institute of International Education study, study abroad programs in China saw a 3.9 percent increase in U.S. students in 2008-2009. The report concluded that students are increasingly interested in Asian and South American study abroad programs, in comparison to programs in Western Europe.
In addition to censorship of certain topics that could be taught in the classroom, China periodically censors access to websites like Gmail and Facebook. Both sites were among several web pages that were inaccessible in China this summer.
Despite government censorship and bans of these sites, Duke students and faculty find that they are able to work around Internet restrictions.
Duke has established a virtual private network, which provides a secure connection allowing faculty and students to access the Duke network from remote locations.
But accessing certain websites has posed problems for students studying abroad with other universities. Students at Binghamton University in New York were unable to access their school e-mail accounts earlier this year because their university was caught in the cross-fire of China’s ban on Google servers, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Litzinger, who will be teaching as part of Duke’s Global Semester Abroad Program in India and China this Spring, said despite the issue of website censorship, intellectual and political discussion are still active on the web.
“There is free speech in China and open discourse,” Litzinger said. “Probably the most active democratic space is the Chinese Internet. Websites are incredibly dynamic and, although they get shut down periodically, people find ways to get around it.”
Litzinger, who has been teaching and doing research in China since the mid-1980s, compared the level of intellectual engagement in China to that of the United States, adding that the Chinese people he met were very interested in social and political issues.
Even so, DukeEngage student Courtney Liu, a sophomore who taught arts education classes to middle school students in Zhuhai, China this summer, said DukeEngage students were advised not to discuss politics openly during their stay in China.
“We were told that it’s not polite to talk about politics at dinner and to avoid talking about controversial topics. Basically, we were told to respect other cultures,” Liu said.
However, Liu noted that the Chinese government was pleased that American students were teaching in the country. The Chinese press covered the students’ activities in Zhuhai and representatives of the Communist Party attended the arts program’s final performance, she said.
As Duke begins to expand its educational ventures in China with the 200-acre Kunshan campus, which is scheduled to begin operations in January 2012, Duke administrators acknowledged the importance of respecting Chinese laws while creating and sustaining educational programs across the world.
“China, like any international setting, is a place where we have to learn our way thoughtfully by engaging relevant decision-makers and understanding the culture,” Gregory Jones, vice president and vice provost for global strategy and programs, wrote in an e-mail. “There certainly are constraints within which we must work and seek to understand while preserving Duke’s integrity.”
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