Students explore new routes to understanding in China

Wei Dong doesn’t talk much about himself. In that sense, this story is a difficult assignment.

He will tell you he is a professor of environment, textiles and design in the School of Human Ecology at UW–Madison, that he grew up in Beijing, and that he studied at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Central Academy of Arts and Design in Beijing. Web sites will reveal his internationally acclaimed expertise in the use of digital media to configure buildings and their interiors.

Another facet of his research is the comparative study of Asian and Western design approaches. That interest led to Dong’s innovative summer class, Chinese Feng Shui and Western Environmental Design, held at and in conjunction with Peking University. Dong is wildly enthusiastic about the new course and, when pressed, actually will talk some about it.

He begins with an overview of what feng shui is not.

“It usually is portrayed very superficially in this country, due, I think, to the fact that people here try to adopt the applications without the cultural context,” he says. “Take the idea of placing a mirror to attract positive energy, which is so often cited in the West. Feng shui isn’t a magic spell to bring good energy. What’s behind the placement of the mirror is the idea of reflection and expansion in general. I think you can begin to see how feng shui is an incredibly complex and interdisciplinary approach to the world.”

Having grown up in China, he saw how the philosophy—that’s the best word to describe it—affects all aspects of life.

“It’s so important in China. I wasn’t very old before I began to see how people were incorporating its principles into all of their activities,” he says.

However, Dong says that the communist government discouraged active study of feng shui, and it wasn’t until he started college at Central Academy that he could pursue a systematic investigation of what was really an integral part of everyday life.

The notion of balance and harmony stand at the center of feng shui. Dong says that five essential elements—fire, water, wood, earth and metal—interact to form and influence the physical world. Conflict and other disharmonies may erupt when one element prevails at the expense of the others.

Not surprisingly, students in such far-flung fields as medicine, interior design, business, philosophy and more took Dong’s new summer class. During their three weeks at the University of Peking, they visited various sites in the morning to see how feng shui was put into practice. Discussions and practicums took place in the afternoon.

Jodi Schildgen, a senior majoring in interior design, put her new knowledge to work as soon as she returned to the United States.

“I used basic feng-shui concepts to help my uncle landscape his back yard,” she says.

Schildgen also reports that the class has made her a more confident world citizen.

“Even as a person who was fairly well-traveled in Europe before this trip, the thought of visiting Asia was intimidating to me,” she says. “But, at the end of the three weeks, it was clear that people all around the world have the same wants and needs.”

And that was a crucial subtext of the trip, Dong says. To assume global citizenship, a person has to be able to ask the most effective questions, something that knowledge of feng shui can bring about, he says.

“To be able to approach something—a problem, a relationship, a business—properly, you have to understand not only what is going on but why,” he says. “In China people traditionally ask, ‘Why.'”

“Holistic” is the word interior design major Courtney Roberts uses.

“Feng shui gives meaning to everything. It gave me a different perspective. I started to realize why I may work better in certain situations or environments, and how I choose my friends. Now I don’t dwell on the small stuff in life, but look at the bigger picture,” she says.

Dong is fine-tuning the course for its second go-around next summer. It is sponsored by the Office of International Studies and Programs. For more information, call 265-6239, or go to http://www.studyabroad.wisc.edu.