Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 01:48:41 -0600
From: George Trail <gtrail-AT-UH.EDU>
Subject: Re: PLC: China?


>As I write this, my wife, Mary, is wending her way down the Yangtze river
>towards Shanghai.  She is in China for a month conducting voice master
>classes at Chengdou, Shanghai, and Beijing universities.   So far she has
>impressed her hosts, who want her back next year, if possible.
>
>She has enjoyed this trip so much that we have been discussing (via
>fax) the possibility of teaching for six months or a year in China.  I
>would, of course, teach literature and cultural studies, not voice. And
>I would  love to learn more about Chinese culture, while mediating
>American culture to Chinese.  Though I am no expert on China, I am very
>interested comparative cultural studies, postcolonial theory, and Marxism,
>and would probably learn a lot there, making my teaching activities
>relevant to my CS field.
>
>But I am also wondering how this sort of adventure would help
>or hinder my efforts to get an academic job in the U.S.--e.g. with an
>English dept. somewhere.
>
>Has anyone out there in Phillitcrit land ever taught or lived in China?
>If so, I would appreciate hearing about the experience.
>
>Also I wouldn't mind hearing from those who have not been to China but
>have some idea of how teaching there might be regarded by a search
>committee here in the states.
>I fear it might not be highly regarded at all by people looking
>to fulfill a more traditional position, though it might be a plus
>where familiarity with cultural studies or multicultural issues is
>desired.  (I am assuming here that I would actually be teaching a
>subject in a university with some kind of rank, and not just, say,
>tutoring students in English or something.)
>
>hh
>
>PS  Of course, I would not do this until after I got my PhD.
>.....................................................................

A short answer. It would not be considered in your favor in English
Departments, especially higher powered ones, in that it does not
demonstrate your commitment to publishing, the only thing, finally that
counts and is "countable" by stat crazy administrators.  I have a colleague
who taught (initially) for a year in Malaysia. When he was hired here he
was hired from a prestigious university and had two books to his credit.
After his leave he applied for and was granted further leaves, and
"disappeared" as far as the department was concerned. No personnel
committee voting on raises, etc., considered him a faculty member--so what
it did was froze his salary. What you are wanting to do is what looks good
when grad students do it, or ESL teachers. Consider, however that ESL
teachers are gypsies frequently (and like it that way) but are not taken
seriously by English Departments.

Cultural Studies may be what English Departments become. Indeed the
traditional English Department may well not live out the first decade of
the 21'st C.. But, consider, That China is still "red," and not a culture
from many established perspectives (that is to say the "cultural
revolution" is/was regarded as a joke or an obscenity).  China's treatment
of Tibet will do it huge damage in these ways.

>From this perspective I would answer that it would not enhance your chances
of getting a tenure track position at an American University. But, on the
other hand, you may finally not want one, you may finally not wish to teach
in cost ineffective luxury which will probably be phased out with the death
of literature considered as high culture.  Cultural Studies programs may
become more numerous, but their "politics" will not remain committed to
whatever ideology informs "post-colonial studies." Like it or not, American
Universities are businesses. Only those with heavy endowments have been
able to slow the conversion down. But even they have not been able to
sustain themselves as enclaves.
g








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