Lecture on Western Imperialism in Asia

Part of our duties as instructors at ABAC is to attend special lectures for our particular field or course of study. Today we had a lecturer from the MA in Tourism (actually he is the DEAN). He covered one of the chapters in our text about Western imperialism and Asia. His major concentration was Western imperialism in China and Southeast Asia.
I must admit that this special lecture was much better than the one before the midterm. That one was about Buddhism and was very confusing. It went into a depth of detail which was over my head. Now, I wonder just how far it was over the heads of my students?
I had lunch with the lecturer, Dr. J, and we found that we had many things in common. He has travelled extensively in China and elsewhere. He also has his own travel agency.

I asked him during lunch where he had been that was the most exotic. He immediately named three places with the last two being Shangra-La and Lijiang. We then discussed Lijiang and the Jade Snow Mountain and he concluded that Lijiang was the most exotic place. I agreed with him and related the story of how I had to go to the toilet but feared the dreaded Chinese squat ones. I usually head back to the hotel to do my thing but this time it was an emergency. Finally, I paid my money and went in for the "ordeal." To my surprise, the toilets were grade AAA western, modern and super clean. Wait, I thought, this is crazy. Then I realized that Lijiang and been rebuilt from the ground up in 1995 or so. It had suffered a huge earthquake in 1994. With help from the Beijing gov, the Naxi (local none Chinese majority) had rebuilt the entire city on ancient Lijiang plans using the original material. Lijiang is actually a "Disneyland" with the whole thing built for tourists. Forgot it even though I had read it. Yep, Lijiang is the most exotic place I had been until we arrived in Kashgar. In Lijiang the Naxi are a matrilinear society so the women are the bosses and the men follow them. It is truly a wonderful, exciting place.

The Dean (our lecturer) gave me a copy of his small book Tales from the Mountains. It is a book about nice stories from the mountains of Burma, Thailand and China. The story about China occurs in Lijiang. These are inspriational stories that deal with people overcoming difficulty. Nicely done. He also handed out his books as a reward for those who could answer his questions at the end.

The lecture covered mostly the Western conflict with China in the 19th Century. Dr. J pretty much followed the text with the Opium Wars, Taiping Rebellion, Moslem Rebellions and then the Boxer Rebellian. He also touched on what happened with Mao. I did ask him about the book (Mao) I was reading and he had not read it yet.

I picked up the attendance cards from my students and noticed that many of them had not shown up. We will have the same lecture next Saturday as well, so I will have to insure my students know this.

During the second lecture (same as the first) I took a break and walked around the area of the conference center and took some pictures. One has to see Assumption University to appreciate the beauty of it. A lot of money and a lot of design work went in to create this campus and it is definitely not Thai. Kind of a cross between Stanford, Georgetown, Notre Dame and the Vatican with heavy emphasis on the Vatican. An amazing piece of work.

The CL building or Center of Learning Tower can be seen for miles around. It has around 25 or 26 stories and the view from its top is magnificant.

In back of the CL building is a stylish Thai style buidling overlooking a serene and beautifully landscaped pond. The rocks and island in the middle make it seem as though one is far away in a make believe location. The swans also add to that feeling.






The pond next to the conference center has a bunch of horses running across the top of it. When the fountains are turned on, the effect is surprising and pleasant. I have heard that the former President who designed the campus and basically brought it to life had a great admiration for horses. Not too long ago we even had an aquestrian event with jumping horses and such. A bit out of place in Thailand as the heat and humidity would be extremely hard on the horses.

Overall, the special lecture was enjoyable. The lecturer was pleasant and the students seemed to be fairly well behaved. Ajarn B says we may not have too many more of these as they are expensive and not sure if the students get much out of them. I volunteered to give a lecture on the Silk Road but not sure if he took it seriously.