Students, faculty win grant to study wrought-iron art industry in China
February 16, 2015
It’s the epitome of the liberal arts in action. Six students and two professors with widely diverse scholarship and interests won a prestigious ASIANetwork grant to research ownership and entrepreneurship in the tiehua industry in Wuhu, China.
Professors Qin Fang and Kevin McIntyre, from the departments of History and Economicsrespectively, brought together six of their top students with majors spanning Asian Studies, History, Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies, and Economics: seniors Kent Hu of East Providence, R.I., and Greg Laslo of Finksburg, Md.; juniors Andrew Roberts of Downingtown, Pa., and Carly Weetman of Westminster, Md.; and sophomores Zoie McNeill of Morgantown, W.Va., and Aaron Sampson of Towson, Md.
Together, professors and students wrote the proposal and applied to the ASIANetwork for a grant to research ways production and sale of tiehua — wrought iron paintings by artists in Wuhu — have undergone drastic changes over the years as China’s economy has been liberalized.
February brought the exciting and hoped-for outcome — a $45,000 grant for the group to spend nearly a month in China doing research. They will build off of research conducted on tiehua in 2011 when Fang and another group of students traveled to the area on an earlier ASIANetwork grant.
All of the group collaboration that fueled the winning proposal will come into play in China, say the professors. The team has reading lists to prepare them long before they board the flight across the Pacific.
“The students need to hit the ground running so they have to be up to speed before we leave Maryland,” says McIntyre, who answered Fang’s query as to whether there were any professors in Economics and Business Administration interested in the research with a rousing, “Yeah — Me!”
Wuhu, a city teeming with more than 2 million people, is Fang’s childhood home. A three-hour drive from Shanghai, Wuhu is the center of the tiehua art form but only a few hundred artists remain. The team will look at the impact on the tiehua industry with the market shift from state-owned monopoly to state capitalism.
Andrew Roberts has a special interest in the research, having lived in Asia for six years and graduating from high school in Singapore in 2012.
“From an economic standpoint, to be able to observe private and state-run firms competing within the same market is a very unique opportunity. Having studied both types of firms, I am very interested in seeing the relationship between the two in such close proximity,” Roberts says. “Additionally, I want to see the main differences in how each operates, as well as whatever differences exist in the working conditions at each firm. I hope to further my understanding of how private and state-operated firms do business in a real world setting, to go beyond theory from the classroom and into the reality of actual markets.”
Fang incorporates Asia’s interaction with the rest of the world into her courses.
“My students have looked at the recent Chinese economy take-off in the ‘East Asian History’ class,” she says. “It is all interconnected — the students have to be interested in the topics but also show ability to understand all of the background.”
Economics-Business Administration major Carly Weetman can hardly wait. The Honors student was intrigued by the opportunity to learn while immersed in the culture.
“Traveling to China will expand my understanding of Economics in ways that wouldn’t be possible otherwise,” says Weetman. “I’m looking forward to the collaboration with the other students from outside my major.
“In fact, I am relying on it. Everyone’s knowledge is going to be crucial to the success of our research.”
