Wake Forest University, China, and the GIFT OF MUSIC

Early last fall WFU music professor and classical pianist, Peter Kairoff, came to visit me in the office of the Byrum Welcome Center.  He, along with the Chair of the Music Department, Stew Carter, came to say thanks for helping to recruit the wonderful Chinese students who were choosing to minor in music at Wake Forest University.  Peter asked what they could do to help in recruiting more of these talented students.   As we talked we three began to dream--"what if we offered a musical concert in China."   "Could we possibly be able to offer a musical concert that would attract our students, potential students, and their families and friends?" We continued to think of the possibilities.  Sitting there, we also talked of the difficulty of logistical planning for such a huge event, how hard it would be to produce materials in bilingual format, the challenge of organizing a performance from so far away.  But the more we talked, the more we were beginning to consider this as a possibility--despite the great challenges.  "Could we even think of such a possibility?"  I asked.  And Drs. Carter and Kairoff said, "Yes, by all means, let us consider this."  And the spark was lit!

This idea was right.  Time has shown it to be true.  While we could have planned other events, such as an athletic showcase, debate tournament, executive education, or even a symposia on current issues,  none seem as fitting as this one---to offer the gift of music.  A liberal arts institution that promotes not only the quest for academic excellence but also a love for beauty, Wake Forest's inaugural visit to China will feature beautiful classical music--and lots of it.  Professor Kairoff will perform selections from J.S. Bach as well as American composers for a delightful evening of piano music played on a beautiful Steinway generously provided by John Patton and the Steinway Company in Shanghai in the lovely performance hall of Dulwich College, Shanghai, Pudong, with hospitality provided by Fraser White and the Dulwich College management team.  On Sunday afternoon, Peter will lead a master class, which will feature his own WFU music students who are home in China for the summer and will join him on stage to help illustrate current practices in piano pedagogy.

Music, this lovely gift for the senses, with capacity to lift us to a place of civility and compassion, to calm our fractured lives, and to create a space for clarity and focus of mind, will be our gift to our new friends in China.  A spark has been lit!   

Onward we go.

global affairs.provost.wfu.edu/china

Wake Forest University in Shanghai--the WFU CHINA INITIATIVE

As we begin this inaugural journey to China this week, I want to document some thoughts about higher education, Wake Forest University, and China. 

This is a most unusual moment in higher education.  I know that every generation feels unique and special. This particular moment in time, however, truly seems monumental.  At this moment, the international opportunities now available to USA higher education are enormous--especially between China and the USA.  Right now, this moment, the potential for shared educational experiences seems limitless.   The opportunity to share our American culture, our way of thinking, our way of teaching and learning, our way of being in this world is truly now!  And the opportunity to learn from the Chinese culture, their way of thinking, their way of teaching and learning, their way of being in this world is truly now! 

Wake Forest University has invited 39 undergraduate students from China to join our Deacon Family for this fall entering class 2012.   Our responsibility is huge as we seek to provide an opportunity for this mutual exchange of  Sino-American intellectual life and social exchange to take place on our campus.  The benefits for all of us are tremendous.  We will learn; they will learn.  And we will all improve our very own culture, our way of thinking, our way of teaching and learning, our way of being in this world. 

Our WFU Creative Services team, led by creative designer Hayes Henderson and project manager Gretta Kohler, designed the above banner.  The icon, shaped in the form of an ancient Chinese seal, symbolizes this historic educational  exchange with two hands, or two cultures, positioned side by side.  We reach our hands to new students and families and new partners in educational collaborations in China.  In turn, these new students, some with parents who will never have the opportunity to visit us here in North Carolina, reach their hands to us by being willing to travel far away to study on our campus and join our Deacon family.   

The design team also captured the art of  Chinese paper design and intricate ornamentation in the design of the delicate header that surrounds the icon of hands.  While China and the USA may differ in styles of teaching and learning, classroom presentations, and innovation and creativity in education, the love of beauty remains a common expression for both cultures.  The mutual love for art, for nature, for music, for beauty powerfully transcends any cultural barriers.  For this reason, Wake Forest University travels to China, for our very first visit, with music, lots of it----featuring Dr. Peter Kairoff and his wonderful artistry at the classical piano.  

Represented here in this delicate design is the color red, symbolizing the joyful and happy educational collaborations that await for us in the future.  Red, a color symbolizing great joy and happiness in both Chinese and American cultures, aptly describes our long-awaited ,joyful anticipation of this exchange between Wake Forest University and China.  

We eagerly await this trip!

Wake Forest University in Shanghai July 14-15, 2012

globalaffairs.provost.wfu.edu/China

Wake Forest University will be going to Shanghai, China July 14-15.  With fourteen WFU representatives of our faculty, staff, alums, and members of our student body, we will be personally welcoming the newly-enrolled students and their families to our entering class of 2012, introducing WFU to prospective students for next year, meeting new friends in higher education, and visiting faculty and schools area high schools.  Dr. Peter Kairoff, classical pianist and WFU Professor of Music,  will be performing at Dulwich College, Shanghai on the evening of July 14.  A Chinese banquet will follow that evening to honor our corporate sponsors for this event:  Boston Scientific, CNA-USA, Edison Learning, Lenovo, Steinway Shanghai, and Kilpatrick,Townsend Stockton. On Sunday, July 15, Dr. Kairoff will offer a master class for students and parents, educators and performers, who are interested in piano pedagogy.  Several of our current students who are from the Shanghai area will be performing with Dr. Kairoff on Sunday afternoon. 

The week prior to the concert, Wake Forest University representatives will be:

 meeting enrolled students and their families; 

making contacts with area corporations for future internship and recruitment opportunities for our WFU students in Shanghai; 

visiting high schools, 

and meeting educators who are interested in exploring opportunities for greater collaboration between Wake Forest University and China.

We are going to Shanghai to say thank you, xie-xie, to our new Wake Forest University families from China.  We will keep you posted on our experiences here.

You will find updated information on the WFU CHINA INITIATIVE at the following site:
http://globalaffairs.provost.wfu.edu/China/

You will also want to click on the events section for up to date information regarding our first trip to China.  We are delighted to introduce Wake Forest University to China through a weekend of classical music provided by Dr. Peter Kairoff.  We will be meeting new friends who are prospective students and their families, our current students and their families, as well as educators and government officials in the Shanhai area.  We thank our corporate sponsors for joining us in this important event--CNA-USA, Edison Learning, and LENOVO.

Please stay tuned here for more details of the event to be published in the next few weeks.

Wake Forest University will host an inaugural musical event in Shanghai China with Peter Kairoff and Friends on July 14-15.  asOUr

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Vaclav Havel--Powerful Words and Mighty Deeds

The poet politician, Vaclav Havel, understood the power of words. I celebrate his life and mourn his death with his words, shared from another wordsmith, Parker Palmer, in a lecture given by Palmer for Campus Ministers in 1990, "Leading from Within: Reflections on Spirituality and Leadership."

Palmer writes, "Tonight I want to begin with the words of one of those people, whose credentials for leadership are far more authentic than mine. I want to quote some remarks that Vaclav Havel (playwright, dissident, prisoner, and now president of Czechoslovakia, made to the U.S. Congress just a few weeks ago. It was surely one of the most remarkable speeches ever delivered on the floor of our national legislative body":

As long as people are people, democracy, in the full sense of the word, will always be no more than an ideal. In this sense, you too are merely approaching democracy uninterruptedly for more than 200 years, and your journey toward the horizon has neven been disrupted by a totalitarian system.
The communist type of totalitarianism system has left both our nations, Czechs and Slovaks, as it has all the nations of the Soviet Union subjugated in its time, a legacy of countless dead, an infinite spectrum of human suffering, profound economic decline, and above all, enormous human humiliation. It has brought us horrors that fortunately you have not known.
It has given us something positive, a special capacity to look from time to time somewhat further than someone who has not undergone this bitter experience. A person who cannot move and lead a somewhat normal life because he is pinned under a boulder has more time to think about his hopes than someone is not trapped that way.
What I am trying to say is this: we must all learn many things from you, from how to educate our offspring, how to elect our representatives, all the way to how to organize our economic life so that it will lead to prosperity and not to poverty. But it doesn't have to be merely assistance from the well-educated, powerful and wealthy to someone who has nothing and therefore has nothing to offer in return.
We too can offer something to you: our experience and the knowledge that has come from it. The specific experience I'm talking about has given me one certainty: consciousness precedes being, and not the other way around, as the Marxists claim. For this reason, the salvation of the human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and in human responsibility (emphasis mine). Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our being as humans, and the catastrophe toward which this world is headed--be it ecological, social, demographic, or a general breakdown of civilization--will be unavoidable."

Thank you, Vaclav Havel for your words and a life well lived. Thank you, thank you!

Continuing . . . .

After a six-month hiatus, I am resuming this literary outlet. This hiatus was not the result of a loss of words. Actually, there were too many words--too many sensations--too much to ponder. Extensive travel to Europe and China, crossing over 35,000 miles between September 21 and November 16, actually left me speechless in many ways but not without words. Words, like music, are always in the air and in my head. Sometimes, however, I am not able to give voice to them. I confess that I am really so very slow to find the exact match of the words to the emotions of the moments experienced. But now perhaps it is time.

I remain thankful for the opportunity to see historical sites, to meet people from different cultures and paths of life, and to be able to participate in rich global educational experiences on behalf of Wake Forest University.

I remain so very thankful that the use of Mandarin Chinese--the use of Chinese words-- returned in the same way that it was given to me--by gift--sheer gift. That ability, to speak to Chinese students, teachers, and parents in their first language, creates advantage for Wake Forest University and much joy for me after all of these years.

And so we continue to search for those words--English or Chinese, Greek or Coptic, French or German--that define who we are and what we think. Words are very important.

Stay tuned.