A recently created undergraduate award in East Asian Languages and Cultures enables students to conduct study in East Asia or on an East Asian topic. WashU alumnus Alex Primm and his wife Cathy created the fund and named it after two professors who had a profound impact on Alex’s career as well as the history of East Asian studies at WashU—Stanley Spector and Richard Yang. Through this program students can pursue projects that enrich their academic study of East Asia, including attending an academic conference, studying abroad, participating in an internship, or doing community outreach with an East Asian focus.
“Stanley and Richard had opposite points of view on many subjects,” Alex Primm observes, “which dominated my year of postgraduate classes on campus.” After completing his undergraduate degree at WashU, Primm was drafted into service in the Vietnam War. “This conflict was a tragic mistake that I hope a wider worldview will help future leaders avoid,” he reflects. Primm returned to WashU for graduate study in East Asian studies before spending a year teaching English and learning Mandarin in Taiwan. While abroad, he witnessed first-hand the opposing political positions that Spector and Yang had outlined in his graduate courses. “Dr. Yang was a big supporter of the Kuomintang on Taiwan,” he notes, “and Dr. Spector the opposite. China has such a complex society, I feel we can all learn a lot by studying its history and culture.”
The Primms believe strongly that one way to prevent future conflict is through increased cultural understanding, and they hope that their fund will help foster cross-cultural understanding by creating unique experiences for students of East Asian languages to continue their studies beyond the classroom. “It’s hard to appreciate the finer points of a language until one visits with people up close,” Alex notes.
This past summer, the first three recipients of the Stanley Spector and Richard Yang Undergraduate Student Award reported back on their experiences.
Yilenda Dong, an East Asian studies major, spent two months at the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies (KCJS), where she studied Japanese language. While in Japan, Yilenda was able to visit the old capital of Nara as well as observe the famous Gion Festival, one of the largest and oldest festivals in Japan. Of her summer Yilenda states, “This experience in Kyoto, Japan, is one of the most memorable so far in my life. I managed to advance my Japanese speaking ability at a speed that I could not imagine before.” In fact, after spending an hour communicating with a restaurant owner entirely in Japanese, he expressed surprise to learn that she was not a Japanese national. “That's when I finally allowed myself to approve of my speaking ability.”
Justyn Higgins, a Japanese language and literature major, traveled to Kyoto as a student in the three-week intensive “Traditional Theater Training Program.” She focused on Japanese dance, or Nihon Buyo, where she learned how to step daintily like a geisha or swagger like a samurai. The program culminated in a recital on an ancient Noh theater stage. Of her experience, Justyn notes: "Feeling the history and culture around me every day that I had the privilege of studying the semester before culminated into the most perfectly spent first time in Japan that I could have imagined. Now that I have been to the country that I have dedicated my studies to for the four years of my undergraduate career, I am more certain than ever that I will be back in Japan to further experience and study the rich culture found there.”
Paige Lockwood, a Chinese language and literature major, participated in a two-month teaching internship with Summerbridge Hong Kong, a nonprofit organization in Hong Kong that offers underprivileged students English education opportunities. While there she also worked hard to improve her ability to speak Cantonese through both self-study and private tutoring. When not teaching or studying, Paige visited museums or traveled to the outlying Islands or the New Territories. She says of her experiences: “My time in Hong Kong has definitely given me a better understanding of Hong Kong as it relates to China both politically and culturally, but also as an independent, multicultural city with vibrant immigrant populations. What I learned in Hong Kong has broadened my interests in Chinese studies, to include immigration and language. I will continue studying Cantonese and would like to learn more about its usage and position in relation to other common languages both in Hong Kong and in mainland China.”
Even as they fund unique experiences for students, Alex and Cathy Primm continue to put their ideals into practice themselves through travels abroad and Alex’s work on oral history. They will travel to China in April, where Alex will teach classes for three weeks on oral history and literature at Hebei Science and Technology University in Shijiazhuang.
The Primms’ gift will enable WashU students of East Asian languages to expand their studies beyond the classroom for years to come. This fund and others created by alumni allow qualified students opportunities to enrich their education in ways that would otherwise not be possible.
