A Tale of Two Capitals: A Comparative Study of Development in Beijing and Ulaanbaatar

Principal Investigator: Mien-hwa Chiang, Director, Chinese Language Program; Senior Lecturer in Foreign Languages

Co-Principal Investigators: Melissa DiFrancesco, Associate Director, Center for East Asian Studies; David Dettmann, U.S. Director, American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS)

Lead School: School of Arts and Sciences, Center for East Asian Studies

Penn Partners: School of Arts and Sciences, American Center for Mongolian StudiesChinese Partners: Inter-University Program (IUP) for Chinese Language Studies; Peking University

Project Abstract

The Chinese Language Program (CLP) at the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, the American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS), and the Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS) jointly proposed “A Tale of Two Capitals: A Comparative Study of Development in Beijing and Ulaanbaatar,” a one-year project offering an 18-day short-term study abroad program in Beijing, China and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia during the summer of 2016. A Tale of Two Capitals provided eight student fellowships for Penn students to continue learning and developing Chinese speaking skills and literacy. In addition to language enhancement, students gained cultural exposure to Beijing and Ulaanbaatar, using a comparative research method to study the development of the two rapidly changing capitals of China and Mongolia.