Institute for China Studies

Mission

The mission of the Institute for China Studies is to promote and coordinate China related teaching, research, and services at University of Wisconsin at Parkside. The Institute is designed to provide services in three major areas of teaching, research and service by offering courses on China, assisting faculty and students conduct research on China and providing services to local business and community (lecture, translation, visa services, etc.)

Director

Dr. Xun (George) Wang, the founding director of the Institute for China Studies, is a full professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. He was born in China and obtained his bachelor and master degrees before coming to the US. His primary interests are China Studies and Organizational Studies. He has published 4 books and over 70 articles and book chapters and presented more than 40 papers at various conferences. He is the recipient of the 2012 Research and Creative Activity Award at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

He has devoted to educational and cultural exchanges between the US and China. He has successfully developed and directed several major exchange programs with the funding from the US federal government with a total budget exceeding $600,000.  In 1996, supported by the funding from the United States Information Agency, he directed the program “The American Corporation in Its Social/Cultural Background”, offering Chinese managers and scholars a series of seminars (four weeks intensive training) on social and cultural background of American management theories and practices. In 2000, with the funding from the US Department of Education, under his directorship, through the program “Improving China Studies in Wisconsin K-12 Schools,” twelve school teachers developed 131 days of lesson plans on China studies for Wisconsin public schools. In 2001, with the funding from the US Department of States, he directed the program “Unemployment, Reemployment in a Free Market Society,” during which twelve high-ranking Chinese government officials, scholars and practitioners were invited to the United States for a month to study how we deal with unemployment issues in the US. In addition, he directed 11 very successful study tours to China since 1998 with students and local residents.

He has taught at several top universities in China including Tsinghua University, The People’s University of China, and Nankai University as visiting professors. He was invited to give talks at more than two dozen prestigious Chinese universities such as Wuhan University, Zhongshan (Sun Yat-sen) University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Wuhan University of Technology, Huazhong Normal University, etc. He also served as a University Fellow at Hong Kong Baptist University.

He has taught “Social Institutions in Contemporary China” and “Gender, Marriage and Family in China”, two specialty courses on China at UW-Parkside. The former is a core course for the Asian Studies minor which he and his colleagues developed at UW-Parkside.  He also co-taught the course “Modern China” with Professor Danching Ruan at Hong Kong Baptist University.

He has extensive relationship with China. He has been serving as an overseas referee for the Chinese Government Scholarship for Outstanding Self-Financed Ph.D. Students Abroad in the US for 12 years starting in 2005. He also served as a referee for the Changjiang (Yangtze River) Scholar award. This award is the highest academic award issued to an individual in higher education by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. The award is also known as the "Cheung Kong Scholar" award and is referred to in English both internationally and by official Chinese government publications as the "Yangtze River" Scholar award.