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July 2008 | Home
U-M HERITAGE »
Panty raid, 1952
The first warm night of 1952. Music blares. Students' thoughts turn to love and fighting. Time to launch a national craze: the panty raid.
Most emailed stories
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Health
Coping with "chemo brain"
It may be in your head, but it's not your imagination. Cancer patients may find that chemotherapy causes cognitive problems.
Talking about science
Go with the flow
Physics can clarify the energy crisis by getting back to basics.
TALKING ABOUT WORDS »
My Word ®
Have you made up any words lately? There's no shortage of people who claim they have.
TALKING ABOUT MOVIES »
What is Bollywood?
Some of the world's most spectacular movies are being made in Bollywood. But fewer really know what really sets these films apart.
U-M Abroad
Special Report:
China, Michigan, and the state of the world
July 15, 2008
Editor's Note: On the eve of the Beijing Olympics, Michigan Today is running several stories on China's growing importance in the world, seen through the eyes of its relationship with the University of Michigan. See contents.
Introduction
Like many international students and scholars, Ph.D. student Xuezhao Lan appreciates the academic freedom of the US. The Sichuan earthquake, however, made her miss her family even more. Read her story, and those of other Chinese scholars at U-M.
Though it has always been a world power, China's recent boom has bolstered its economic and political muscle. Perhaps more than ever, China is an indispensible country—one whose people, policies and money determine the course of world events. What happens in China affects everyone.
Examples? China's public health infrastructure is the first line of defense against infectious diseases like SARS and avian flu. Its use of coal will soon be the most significant source of carbon emissions—and global warming—in the world. Meanwhile, Chinese scholars are traveling and engaging with the world as perhaps never before, creating what some expatriates call the "Chinese diaspora." And Chinese educators look to U-M and other US universities as they build a higher-ed infrastructure for the 21st century.
The University of Michigan has always maintained strong relations with China. U-M president James Angell served as the US ambassador to the country in the 1880s. Of the thousands of international students teaching and studying in Ann Arbor, no country sends more than China. And Wolverines from nearly every discipline teach, study or conduct research there.
Because U-M and China are so engaged with one another, to look at some of U-M's programs is to get some understanding of the opportunities and challenges that our countries and institutions face. It's also to find hope for even stronger collaborations in the future.
Contents
- Prof. Brian Coppola on why everything we know about China is wrong.
- Chinese and U-M experts try to build the first line of defense against a global pandemic.
- Slideshow: U-M Public Health students travel, teach, and learn in China.
- For Chinese scholars at U-M: freedom, homesickness and irony.