The New Zealand History and Culture course at Peking University

27/09/2019 - The New Zealand History and Culture class at Peking University runs again this autumn semester, giving Chinese students a rare glimpse of a country they might otherwise know little of. The course offers its students an extension to their understanding of the English language and foreign culture while allowing New Zealand to raise its profile through China’s top University.

From an outside perspective it might be surprising to hear students in China are studying a small, sparsely populated island country in the South Pacific, and yet the New Zealand History and Culture course has been a success at Peking University since it began in 2008. The course is an initiative of the New Zealand Centre at Peking University to raise New Zealand's profile in China and increase high level tertiary cooperation between the two countries. 

Students presenting summary of their group discussion

The course started again this September. In the course, students learn about New Zealand through influential historical events, political stances, language, movies and music to name a few. Such subjects are explored each week by one of the five Kiwi scholars from Massey University speaking on their specialised field of research. The team is headed by the Head of School of Humanities and Social Sciences Associate Professor Kerry Taylor, with Dr. Peter Meihana as the course coordinator. The course has a Chinese professor from the New Zealand Centre at Peking University at every lecture providing the backbone. Unique to this course at PKU are its Kiwi course tutors, often Peking University international students, who attend the lectures to manage group activities, answer questions as well as give more fronts of exposure to English Language and the Kiwi culture.
 

As classes are taught in English, with many native speakers on-hand, students often actually cite improving their English as one reason to join the course. Besides American or British style of English, which is popular with in-coming media in China, students of NZ History and Culture are able to broaden their rang of comprehension within English accents. Others reason students sign up include broadening cultural horizons and learning about various aspects of New Zealand culture, especially Maori culture. In addition to these outcomes, the course aims to improve students’ critical thinking, expression of opinions, and cooperative learning through group projects.
 

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