Cristina Garafola: SAIS + HNC

Johns Hopkins SAIS D.C. Office of Admissions: SAISers on Winter Break: Myanmar

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:57:28 -0500

Johns Hopkins SAIS D.C. Office of Admissions: SAISers on Winter Break: Myanmar:

My guest post!

This is the second student guest post about their winter break activities activities. Our guest blogger this week is Cristina Garafola, who was a regular student blogger for Admissions last year. Cristina is currently completing the MA component of the 5-semester option, having completed the…

Passing the (SAIS blog) baton

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 15:29:08 -0400

It’s that time of year when the weather is still as hot and humid as ever, but the calendar insists that the fall semester will be here before we know it. It’s also the time of year for my blog to be winding down, but I’ll get to that in a moment…

While volunteering to help out at the SAIS Young Alumni BBQ event in June (featuring a delicious and nutritious BBQ feast for SAISers and SAIS alums in the area), I met Dayanita and discovered that she’s just started writing a SAIS Admissions blog for the 2012-2013 year! Since then, we went to happy hour together (as she wrote about in a post a little while ago) and we’re planning to meet up again before she heads to Montreal. A few Fridays ago, we also made it to Jazz in the Garden with about 10 other SAISers—I’m not sure how we managed to find them in the crowd of happy picnickers, but we did—and that was the perfect end to the work week.

Overall, SAIS has been pretty hopping this summer. Some fellow interns and I checked out a job fair that was held at SAIS earlier in July (tip: get there early so you can leave before the lines get too long!). SAIS also recently hosted an admissions fair called “Summerfest” with other top graduate programs in international affairs; if you’re thinking about checking out SAIS or some of these other programs, an admissions fair is a great option. This past weekend, I saw a new movie on IMAX with 14 other SAISers, and on Sunday, I headed to another Nationals game with brand new SAIS alumnus and fellow intern Jingbo:

Jingbo Jing, SAIS MA ‘12, sporting his new Washington Nationals hat, while I’m doing my best to coordinate with the Nats’ colors of red, white and blue. In case you were wondering, they also won this game!

Anyway, it’s nearing the end of July, and Tuesday was actually my last day as a TA for a summer class here at SAIS. From here on out, I’ll be transitioning to SAIS D.C. life and gearing up for the fall semester as I finish up my summer internship. Thanks again for coming back each week to read my blog; it’s been a great year at HNC and in D.C.! I’m sure Dayanita and the other new bloggers will do an amazing job, but if you have any specific questions about my experiences, feel free to reach out to me via SAIS Admissions (mention my name in the email subject) or by finding me on the internet in general. Until then, I’m passing on the blog baton to the next round of SAIS bloggers.

A very American 4th of July

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 10:20:00 -0400

It’s been about a month now since I landed in the U.S. and moved to D.C. to start my internship. The last few weeks of class and final exams were a rush of papers and packing, so I’m glad to be done with that—although it’s hard to believe that it will be a long time before I can reunite with HNC classmates in Nanjing again.

So far, though, I’ve been having a great time in D.C.! It’s nice to have a change of pace from student life, as I’m working this summer. There are actually some current SAISers and recent alumni working downtown along with me, so we’ve been meeting up a lot despite the heat… and has there ever been heat. This was my first 4th of July in the capital, and I spent the day at a Washington Nationals baseball game (they won!), barbecuing with friends at their house, and watching the fireworks from the top of my apartment building.

The Teddy Roosevelt mascot lost the Presidents’ Race around one side of the field—Thomas Jefferson won this time—in a running joke that TR never wins. He is trailing quite a bit in this photo (almost parallel the second baseman), but it was about 95 degrees out so it’s hard to blame him. The crowd is wearing their best red, white and blue.

All in all, celebrating America’s birthday in D.C. was a great experience and the perfect cap off to my first month back in town.

Heading home

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 02:37:41 -0400

I’m sitting in the Beijing airport right now, heading back to the U.S.! I’ll be starting an internship in D.C. on Monday. I’m looking forward to catching up with my fellow SAISers who are in D.C. for the summer (although many are working abroad this summer in places like Japan, India, Jordan, China, Austria, and more). Anyway, more updates about the end of the semester after I land in the States!

HNC's 25th anniversary

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:26:46 -0400

The semester is winding down, but that also means that HNC’s 25th anniversary is coming up! Students first started attending HNC in the fall of 1986 and the past few anniversary celebrations have been held in the summer, in honor of the first class’s graduation.

Given that this year celebrates a quarter-century of HNC, some special activities have been planned. First (of course) is this year’s graduation, but there’s also alumni reunions, guest speakers, panels, and visits by Johns Hopkins University President Ronald Daniels and Nanjing University President Chen Jun. To commemorate the 25th, the Student Council (Banwei) decided to host a photo contest to produce postcards for the anniversary celebration. We got submissions from current and former students as well as the HNC Washington Support Office—here are a few of the winners!

HNC during its construction in 1984 or 1985, courtesy of the HNC Washington Support Office.

Steven Muller Atrium in HNC’s library, courtesy of Geng Yuchao, HNC Certificate ‘12.

The stacks in the library, courtesy of Hu Wenjie, HNC Certificate ‘12.

The courtyard from above, courtesy of Spike Nowak, HNC Certificate ‘12.

Students talking at the fish pond, courtesy of Hu Wenjie, HNC Certificate ‘12.

Technical difficulties...

Fri, 25 May 2012 21:41:31 -0400

…so no regular blog post this week, sorry! But congratulations to the Class of 2012! You can see videos of commencement or hear what the new grads plan to do next at SAIS’s YouTube channel. Enjoy!

In which HNCers visit the U.S. consulate

Thu, 17 May 2012 21:18:00 -0400

It all started with a trip to Shanghai to attend Ambassador Locke’s lecture (see my earlier post on that here). After the lecture, people were milling around, enjoying the reception, and meeting fellow attendees. I ended up striking up an acquaintance with an intern the U.S. Commercial Service, who put me in touch with someone at the U.S. consulate in Shanghai, who very graciously invited HNC students to the consulate for an afternoon to get a better understanding of careers in the Foreign Service! Talk about a chain reaction of awesome opportunities.

Anyway, so that was last Friday. About 20 or so HNCers caught a(nother) morning train to Shanghai and assembled at the consulate after it reopened post-lunch break. Actually, a few of us struggled to get out of the elevator once we got there because a long, long line of Chinese citizens had quickly formed, most of whom were hoping to obtain U.S. visas that day. Apparently, this one site processes about 2,000 visas daily! It was easily the busiest visa office I’ve ever seen.

Once inside the office, we learned a lot about the work done there, including visa interviews, as well as more general insights into life in the Foreign Service and the FSO (Foreign Service Officer) career. We also met a few HNC alums working there, so it was great to get their perspectives. Maybe in the future, we’ll have an HNC ‘12 classmate working at the U.S. consulate in Shanghai—who knows!

Time for dinner! (Or lunch or breakfast.)

Tue, 08 May 2012 12:06:00 -0400

On Tuesday, my roommate and I went on an adventure to purchase something called 蒸笼 (zhenglong), which is a kind of steamer cooking basket for The Best Food in the World, also known as 蒸饺 (zhengjiao) or steamed dumplings—I’m hoping to use the steamer basket to make my own dumplings once I get back to SAIS! Later that day, I stopped at my favorite dumpling restaurant near campus to celebrate my purchase, after trying out a pastry at a new bakery that recently opened and stopping with a friend at one of the tea shops around the HNC/Nanjing University campus. My food adventures today got me thinking about the variety of foods close to HNC, and compared to a lot of places in China (and even some in the U.S.), it’s pretty impressive.

The Best Food in the World, accompanied by the Best Condiments in the World—vinegar and hot pepper (photo by me).

First of all, there’s our cafeteria, which has really been mixing it up this semester and also continues to feature delicious, delicious pancakes (with maple syrup!) for breakfast. I’ve discovered that breakfast foods outside the Center are also pretty great, such as the Western-style brunch served at one place and the flavorful Nanjing-style 煎饼 (jianbing), an omelette/pancake type thing. Favorite Chinese restaurants in the area hail from regions such as Fujian, Xinjiang, Yunnan and more. If you’re looking for something a little farther afield, we’ve also got sushi, Indian, Turkish, German, Italian, Middle Eastern, and (for some unknown but excellent reason) at least six Korean restaurants within a ten minute walk of the Center. If you want sandwiches, cookies, or pie, the local bakery, Skyways, has got you covered. If you’re too lazy/stressed to eat out, you can even order in from McDonald’s, KFC, and other fast food places. Last, if you just want a healthy or not so healthy snack, there’s tons of fruit stores and tea and coffee shops near NanDa and HNC. So, even if you’re not a dumpling addict like me, there’s definitely a restaurant near HNC where you can discover your own favorite foods.

What to expect: SAIS + HNC edition

Wed, 02 May 2012 22:33:21 -0400

On the SAIS D.C. admissions blog, Associate Director of Admissions Erin Cameron has been giving a lot of tips for incoming SAISers who are heading to D.C. and Bologna this fall. I wanted to add a little bit about what to expect if you’re a 5 Semester student like me, gearing up for some combination of D.C./Nanjing academic experience.

If you’re heading to the Hopkins-Nanjing Center first (like I did):

The good news about housing at HNC is that HNC has dorm rooms, which (for those who have had experience finding their own housing in China know) is incredibly convenient and hassle-free, although second year MA students can apply to live off campus if they wish to do so. More information about housing, residence permits, academic standards, contact information and other awesomeness will be winging your way (via email) in the form of the HNC Student Orientation Handbook sometime in May. Also, regardless if you’re already a 5 Semester student, an HNC certificate/MA student who’s interested in economics, or a HNC certificate student considering applying to SAIS to complete the 5 Semester program, you too can participate in Pre-Term at SAIS D.C.! You can find more information about HNCers completing Pre-Term here (scroll down to “Can Hopkins-Nanjing Center entrants attend?”).

If you’re finishing up at HNC and heading to SAIS D.C. this fall (like I am now):

Excellent, we’re both returning to the U.S.! If you’ve been at HNC for a year, you already have your JHED and have most likely already checked out the Admit Pack, so your biggest concerns are probably A.) our upcoming finals :/ and B.) finding housing during Pre-Term (if you’re doing Pre-Term) and/or for the next academic year. Again, I’d really recommend checking out the SAIS housing site, because I found some good leads on there when I was apartment hunting. Also, some Pre-Termers sublet in the summer and then decide to room with fellow SAISers for the academic year, so that’s an option as well.

As always, whether you’re an HNCer, a SAISer or both, feel free to submit questions on this blog!

What’s been going on at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center lately? Here’s a brief update: After...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 02:49:09 -0400

What’s been going on at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center lately? Here’s a brief update:

After spring break, banwei (the student council) organized a campus-wide Easter egg hunt party as both a way to introduce Chinese students to egg hunts and as an excuse to buy delicious chocolate treats—both missions were fulfilled! Sorry, no photos because all the prizes and treats were immediately consumed …
HNC students, administration, and faculty participated in a Nanjing-wide city wall walk last Saturday. According to Wikipedia and other sources, Nanjing has some of the largest city wall structures ever built in China, and participants walked a lot. How much? About 40 kilometers or ~25 miles in 11.5 hours! After their marathon excursion, participants enjoyed a delicious barbecue feast and ice cream on the second floor patio of the dorm building.
Even though we just got back from spring break a few weeks ago, we’re already preparing for another short break for the Chinese Labor Day holiday on May 1st. Students are traveling to places such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Qingdao for the break. I’m hoping to head to Suzhou for a day to see the canals and gardens there.

Here’s some photos from the Ningxia trip and the city wall walk! All of the photos are by me unless otherwise noted.

Entering a mosque in Yinchuan, Ningxia.

Visiting a mosque between Wuzhong and Yinchuan, Ningxia.

Students pose for a picture at the Muslim Cultural Center in Ningxia.

At a roundtable discussion at Ningxia University.

City wall walk! Photo by Geng Yuchao, HNC Certificate ‘12.

Students hungrily waiting for kebabs (串儿). Photo by Ling Chuyang, HNC Certificate ‘12.

This clip is from a trading game during the finance mini-course...

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:10:01 -0400

This clip is from a trading game during the finance mini-course offered a few weeks ago at HNC, where students bought and sold “assets” based on their expected value and then learned if their predictions were correct when the asset’s actual value was revealed at the end of the game. HNC Professor Armstrong-Taylor and SAIS Ph.D. student Neil K. Shenai led the mini-course, which focused on the basics of the financial industry as well as an introduction to personal finance. I personally had a great time playing the game and my roommate and I both made millions (okay, thousands) of pretend “HNC bucks” by correctly predicting that the asset in this game was undervalued. Maybe I’ll expand on my newfound skills with a finance-related class at SAIS in the fall, who knows…

Assistant Director of Development Emily Spencer holds a letter...

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:24:39 -0400

Assistant Director of Development Emily Spencer holds a letter from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton congratulating HNC on its 25th anniversary. What an awesome way to celebrate 25 years! In June, the Center will be hosting its 25th anniversary celebration here in Nanjing.

Spotted on the streets of Wuzhong, Ningxia Hui Autonomous...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:00:25 -0400

Spotted on the streets of Wuzhong, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, PRC: Muammar Gaddafi socks based on the “Last Stand” cover of Gaddafi from Time magazine, with his name written in Chinese and some extra praise for “the legend.” What, might you ask, do articles of clothing with deposed African leaders on them have to do with China? It’d be interesting to ask the sock manufacturers directly why they chose to create this specific product, but overall, we weren’t surprised to see an important Arab leader on the radar screen of an inland Chinese province. In fact, Ningxia’s ties to the Middle East are one of the main reasons why we’re currently visiting and researching here.

About 15 HNCers are currently in Ningxia over our spring break to research the Hui zu (回族) or the Hui Muslim ethnic minority, which is an extremely diverse ethnic minority among China’s 55 minorities (plus the Han for a total of 56 official ethnicities). On Monday, for example, we visited two mosques, a Muslim cultural center, a vocation school where students specialize in learning English and Middle Eastern languages, and a monument/religious site during prayer time. After dinner, we decided to walk around the city we’re currently in, Wuzhong, when we spotted the socks in a store. More pictures and adventures when I get back to Nanjing! Thanks to Liang Xiao, HNC Certificate ‘12, for the photo.

In which HNCers sit in on a lecture by Ambassador Locke

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:20:03 -0400

Last Monday, over 50 HNC students headed to Shanghai to attend the 2012 Barnett-Oksenberg Lecture on Sino-American Relations. Interestingly (and awesomely), A. Doak Barnett is a former SAIS professor and the rare books collection in HNC’s library is named after him!

The lecture series is organized each year by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSCR) and, according to their website, is “the first and only ongoing lecture series on U.S.-China relations to take place on the Mainland.” Past keynote speakers have included Kenneth Lieberthal, Charles Freeman, and Jon Huntsman. Students were excited to learn that this year’s speech would also be given by a current ambassador, U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke. Although the event was closed to the public, HNCers were offered some seats, and we gladly signed up. A group of friends and I took the high speed train to Shanghai, and soon we were listening closely to Ambassador Locke’s speech and asking him questions during the Q&A:

Ambassador Gary Locke, fielding a question from the audience. Photo by Shu Fei, HNC Certificate ‘12.

One advantage of rolling with a 50-person strong HNC crew was that the moderator wanted to balance out questions from Chinese academia and other established attendees with questions from students (i.e., mostly HNC students because there were only a handful of others there). HNC students asked the ambassador about the future of U.S.-China cooperation on Syria, U.S.-Taiwan relations as China develops, and about his own upbringing as a Chinese-American. After the lecture was over, we got to mingle with the rest of the audience, where I met people from all different sectors: one was a high-end restaurant entrepreneur, another organized large scale auctions for manufacturers with excess or unsold production in China, and others were Foreign Service Officers based in Beijing and Shanghai. Also, the reception was amazing (three words: tiny crab cakes). Although I had to 请假 to go—request permission from professors to miss class—the lecture was overall a great experience and an opportunity that I was glad to take advantage of during my time at HNC.

恭喜恭喜！

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:13:26 -0400

A big CONGRATS (恭喜) to everyone who’s been admitted to SAIS, HNC, and the 5 Semester Program! As crazy as this sounds, the easy part is over for most accepted students—now it’s time to figure out which program out of the ones you’re considering best fits your interests and needs. Good luck to everyone in this decision-making process!

In other news—actually, literally—HNCers and SAISers have been making the news. SAIS Ph.D. candidate Neil K. Shenai, currently a visiting scholar at HNC, and Bernard Geoxavier, HNC MAIS ‘12, recently collaborated on an article for Fareed Zakaria GPS called “Why Succession Matters.” Their article covers the succession procession in Chinese politics and the long term implications for China’s leadership and the Communist Party.

Also, Shen Dan, HNC Certificate ‘12, was recently selected as a 2012 Chinese delegate for the Forum for American/Chinese Exchange at Stanford!

Congrats to these SAISers and HNCers, as well as you future SAISers and HNCers out there. Your first semester as a SAIS or HNC student is only a few short months away! If you have any questions, watch your email inbox for info on the online chat sessions and feel free to participate (I did last year as a prospective student and they were pretty helpful). Also, you can always post a question on this blog and I’ll do my best to answer it.

"Gearing Up" for Career Day

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:05:57 -0400

At both the Hopkins-Nanjing Center and SAIS, there’s a ton of career-related tools to help students figure out where they want to go and what they want to do after graduation. There’s alumni panels in different fields of interest, campus-based recruiting, SAISWorks (an online jobs database and career resource center), and a whole lot more that you can read about here for SAIS and here for HNC.

This past weekend at HNC was the first ever “Gearing Up” day to prepare students for their job search as well as an annual Career Day held later in March in Shanghai. HNC and SAIS alums, as well as other business professionals, spent their Friday afternoon and a full day on Saturday giving us tips on resumes, cover letters, networking, interviewing, and most importantly, the broader search for figuring out which careers best fit our interests. Although I was glad to hear I’ve been on the right track in some of the ways I’ve gone about networking and job hunting, it’s been really thought provoking to take the presenters’ advice and apply it to my own resume and cover letters. We also had multiple rounds of mock interviews to test our newfound skills. Overall, I learned a lot and I think I’m ready for the upcoming Career Day (as well as some upcoming interviews for summer internships)… we’ll find out!

Professor Hua Tao, left, faces off against Professor Liu Houjun...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 09:55:44 -0500

Professor Hua Tao, left, faces off against Professor Liu Houjun in HNC’s annual ping pong tournament. Despite using his dramatic style of play to the utmost, Hua later lost to Liu—which wasn’t a surprise to most of the crowd, because Professor Liu has won the tournament each year for as long as anyone can remember (at least 10 years!). Students also played against professors and faced off against each other after this decisive match. The phrase hao qiu! (好球), said often by people in the crowd, means “good hit!” Maybe Professor Hua can finally beat the champion next year and take away his trophy…

Student government

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:06:00 -0500

While SAIS D.C. has the SGA (Student Government Association), HNC has what’s called the banwei (班委), four student representatives that act as bridges between the student body and the administration. The banwei is elected once each semester and helps organize events like holidays, alumni activities, and campus discussions, and they help liaise between student groups and the administration. They also host our beloved weekly happy hours on Friday nights. Comprised of two international and two Chinese members (one male and one female on each side), the banwei work together to strengthen the HNC community.

Anyway, this semester I decided to run again for a position on the banwei (I actually ran last semester as well, but it was a crowded field and the student body eventually opted for an experienced second-year MAIS student, which was a great choice). This time, I prevailed! Perhaps it was because most of the election drama surrounded the candidates for the male international banwei position (one set his speech to a song; another promised lower beverage prices; others cracked up the audience with funny introductions and jokes) that my relatively serious, straight-forward speech met with students’ approval, but who knows. My fellow banwei members are Sean, a second year MAIS; Yang Qian, a first year MAIS; and Lu Liangtao, a fellow certificate student. This week, we’ll have our first meeting with the HNC administration and see where we’ll go from there. So far, though, it seems like most students are happy about their decision to elect us because we were able to successfully organize the first spring semester happy hour. After a full week of studying, our relaxation time each Friday appears to be an important election issue!

Worth at least a thousand words

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:18:07 -0500

Since my trip ended this past week, I’ve FINALLY been able to access the files on my “big” camera (an actual camera, as opposed to my “small” camera, an ancient iPod touch), so I can stop talking about my trip and start showing you all pictures from it. In other news, this is our first week back at HNC; it’s been great to catch up with people and hear how their breaks went.

Anyway, here’s some photos from the trip that I hope give a good sense of my travels:

Taiwan

With second year SAISer Jingbo Jing, on the SAIS Taiwan election study trip—thanks to Jingbo for the photo.

The inaugural meeting of the SAIS Taipei Alumni Club! Thanks to Jingbo Jing, SAIS MA ‘12, for this photo.

Election rally we attended on our trip: DPP candidate Tsai Ing-wen is center left, wearing a white jacket with a green sash.

Rallyers rallying.

Holding flags for their candidates.

Vietnam

Temple of Literature in Hanoi

street-side calligraphy next to the temple

Hue’s Citadel, bombed by the U.S. during the Vietnam War.

sunflowers in Ho Chi Minh City

street eats

Cambodia

Phnom Penh

Sihanoukville beaches

Angkor Wat

work site=nap site

Thailand

Jim Thompson’s house, which I wrote about a few posts ago.

Bangkok’s Grand Palace

demons/monkeys (demon monkeys?) are burdened by all the gold

Chiang Mai

monks at work

Laos

Luang Prabang

Elephants on the move!

waiting for bananas

Our last full day of vacationing—what a great way to spend it.

Cultural and ethnic tourism in Laos

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:07:00 -0500

Tuesday was our final day in the river town of Luang Prabang and today we are heading to our last destination before we return to China (Vientiane, the capital of Laos). Of all the places we’ve traveled on this trip, Luang Prabang might be my favorite. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it’s a sleepy town bordered by rivers on two sides; palm trees line the sidewalks as you stroll by the restored old buildings and wats, or temples. In the town itself, there’s not much to do besides explore the temples and shops and eat delicious Laotian and Western food, which we did happily for most of our time in the city.

However, advertisements for day trips and side trips to sites outside of Luang Prabang are everywhere. Brochures, travel agencies, and tuk-tuk drivers all promise unforgettable experiences by learning about Laotian “traditional culture” such as cooking, dance, weaving, alcohol fermentation and elephant riding. Similarly, other packages offer ethnic tourism “adventures,” chances for tourists to interact with ethnic minorities through trekking or visiting rural villages. These kinds of tour packages are not unique to Luang Prabang or Laos, either; other places we visited, such as Thailand and northern Vietnam, also offered similar trips.

Anyway, as visitors to Laos and with little understanding of Laotian history and culture, it’s only natural that people want to take advantage of these kinds of trips—we were no exception and eventually settled on a cooking class (I’m hoping to use my newfound skills and recipes back to Nanjing and D.C.) and a half-day riding elephants. The challenge was to pick activities that we were really compelled to do that also promoted responsible tourism and development (as much as we could) of this wonderful area. For example, Luang Prabang has a tradition in which every morning, the town’s thousands of monks walk the main streets to receive alms—generally rice—from locals and tourists. Unfortunately, some profit-hungry vendors have taken to selling low quality food to tourists at the standard higher prices, and when given as alms to the monks, the food has made some of the monks quite sick. Also, some tourists focus more on the photo-op than on the significance of the religious custom by pushing and shoving to take photos and shining camera flashes right into the monks’ eyes. The monastic community has tried to push back against the increasingly touristy alms-giving ceremony, but according to some guidebooks, the ceremony is such a tourist draw that government authorities have threatened to replace the monks with laypeople dressed in monks’ robes if the monks refuse to take alms. Alms-giving in Luang Prabang has become not just a religious event but a political and economic one that creates tensions in the local community. This was one activity we decided to sit out in Laos.

Another activity we’d been dreaming of doing for months was elephant riding, but it was really important to choose a safe and well-run elephant camp before we hopped aboard behind our mahout (or elephant keeper/driver). Also a concern in Thailand, some Laotian elephant camps are well-run rehabilitation centers for former logging elephants or animals forced to perform tricks to earn their keep, but others treat the animals poorly and underfeed them to cut costs. The elephant camp we went with was a little more expensive than the others, but the facilities were first rate and the elephants looked content in their new jobs as short-distance mounts for tourists and high-volume consumers of bananas fed by their grateful passengers. In this case, we knew our tourist dollars would feed back into a program that would continue to rescue more elephants and hire more local workers to take care of them.

Finally, I’ve griped here a little about tours that focus on “ethnic exploration,” but out of the countries we’ve visited on this trip and especially compared to China, Laos scores pretty highly on attitudes toward ethnic minorities in a modern context. We spent a few hours one morning in the Traditional Arts and Ethnicity Centre, a small museum that places Laos’ ethnic minorities in a historical context but also explores how modernization and globalization have affected the peoples of Laos. The exhibits were brief but fascinating, and it was refreshing to see this nuanced perspective towards ethnicity as compared to China, where ethnic tourism is thriving but traps minorities into wearing certain costumes and performing certain rituals regardless of their stance on those traditions. (If you’re interested in learning more about this, there are a few anthropology courses at HNC on China and there’s even been a Anthro class recently at SAIS called “Anthropology for Strategists”!) Anyway, this post is getting too long, but I wanted to leave you with this quote from of the exhibits in the museum:

“These exhibits provide some insight into the cultural wealth of Laos’ many ethnic communities to promote an appreciation for their history, knowledge, traditions, and arts. However, this is only a brief introduction to cultures and people which are multidimensional and dynamic.

“Ethnic communities in developing countries are not frozen in time as historical or ‘traditional’ icons. In fact, they are developing and changing as much as cultures in Europe, the Americas, or even Vientiane, and have been transforming for hundreds of years. Ethnic peoples in Laos live in cities, own businesses, hold government positions, and travel overseas. In rural villages, they listen to the radio, trade with other ethnic groups, frequent town markets, adopt new crops, and build cement houses. People adapt their lifestyles and traditions to changing circumstances, globalization, and opportunities to improve their futures.

“Economic development and modernization does not [sic] require abandoning one’s traditions or ethnic identity. However, with changing livelihoods and lifestyles, upholding elements of ethnic identity such as language, clothing, religion and rituals is a challenge. Through learning and exchange, we can foster appreciation and preservation of Laos’ multi-ethnic heritage while still looking towards the future.”

—Statement on “Ethnicity, Identity and Change,” Traditional Arts and Ethnicity Centre, Luang Prabang, Laos

On this trip, I’ve learned so much about the countries I’ve visited and myself as well. I hope I can bring back this knowledge and related ideas about traveling, politics, and development to inform my studies at HNC and SAIS. Tomorrow, it’s back to Nanjing I go…