CLC to help set up cultural center in China

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Updated: April 8, 2012 1:51AM

GRAYSLAKE — The College of Lake County will soon be a major source of information about American culture for students and professors at Xi’an International University in Xi’an, China, an institution with about 36,000 faculty and students. CLC is one of 12 American colleges and universities — and the only community college — to be selected by the U.S. Department of State to establish an American cultural center in China, according to Dr. Li-huaYu, a native of China and a sociology instructor at CLC. Other U.S. colleges include the University of Chicago and Arizona State University.

Known as the CLC-XAIU American Culture Center, the 8,600-square-foot facility will open this spring in the library of the university, the same school where CLC faculty and staff have spent semester-long programs over the past three years. The center is scheduled to open in March, with a grand opening set for June, said Dr. Li-hua Yu, former manager of the CLC International Center.

Increasing the cultural understanding between the two countries is the main reason for the State Department funding the cultural centers, Dr. Yu explained. “Most Chinese citizens know that the U.S. is a wonderful country, but most don’t really understand American society,” she said. “Conversely, China’s military and economic growth is tremendous, and sooner or later, Americans need to know China.”

The cultural center will be stocked with a combination of media designed to showcase the diversity of American culture, according to Uri Toch, a CLC librarian who is traveling to China in March with Dr. Yu to help set up the new center. Selected books — rich in pictures to minimize language barriers — cover topics as wide-ranging as slavery and Jim Crow laws to baseball and Apple computer founder Steve Jobs, Toch explained.

A dozen magazines, with titles ranging from “Seventeen” to “Consumer Reports,” will be on display. Posters, showing everything from the Marx Brothers comedy actors to enlarged “New Yorker” magazine covers, will adorn the walls. DVDs will allow visitors to hear the works of American musicians such as Louis Armstrong, and displayed T-shirts will show icons such as sports-team logos. Computers, with Internet access, will allow visitors to browse Web sites and blogs.

The intent is to create a welcoming place where both Chinese students and faculty, along with their American counterparts, can come to relax.

Funding for the center comes from three sources: An $81,000 grant from the U.S. Department of State, $30,000 from Xi’an International University and $7,000 provided by CLC, Dr. Yu said. Since the funding was announced last fall, CLC faculty and staff have been working with their Xi’an counterparts to order materials and plan the many logistics of the new center. It’s a work in progress, and other books will be added based on requests from professors in Xi’an.

In addition to helping set up the center, Toch will teach a seminar on American library policies and practices for his Chinese counterparts. “I feel very honored to be chosen to help set up the cultural center,” said Toch, whose visit to China will be his first.

In addition to the opening of the cultural center, two CLC instructors will travel to Xi’an to teach separate, three-week workshops highlighting aspects of American culture. Dave Groeninger, a history professor, will present a workshop titled “The Heart of the Land: Chicago and the Making of Modern America.” Kathleen Johnston, instructor of early childhood and elementary education, will present a workshop titled “Perspectives on American Public Education: Kindergarten to 12th Grade.” Dr. Yu will teach workshops to Chinese instructors on how to work more effectively with visiting American students. Two CLC students, Gracie Williams and Kasia Leus, will make the three-week trip and give their own presentations on topics ranging from American individualism to social media usage.