In once what used to be an empty field along the Yangtze River now stands skyscrapers and stretches of broad boulevards.
ETSU Associate Professor Dr. Henry Antkiewicz and 14 other university professors marveled at the sight as they arrived in China last August on a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to look at the modernization and economic development of the country.
“It is an amazing picture of rapid development in China,” Antkiewicz said.
The professors visited universities in China and were lectured to by some of the best scholars in economics, history or politics. “We even met people who manage investments in the financial district Shanghai,” Antkiewicz said. “These are relatively young people with an excellent command of English who are the cusp of this modern economy and it was exciting to just see their excitement about what was going on.”
Antkiewicz visited China in the early 1980s and remembers walking along the Yangtze River. On the opposite side there was nothing but an empty field, Antkiewicz said.
Today Shanghai is becoming the financial center of China. “China’s economic growth rate is about 10 percent a year, which is a very large number,” Antkiewicz said.
In Pudong, a suburb of Shanghai, the growth rate is about 20 percent a year, Antkiewicz said. “Money is pouring in through foreign and government investment” he said, “and they just built up the economy tremendously.”
Everyone there has cell phones, he said. “My wife and I don’t even have cell phones, but everybody in China has a cell phone,” he said.
“We went to visit an ancient ruin in China and even the mule driver on a trip through Old City had stopped to answer his phone.”
Shopping, too, is a passion in China in the new millennium, he said. During an excursion through Shanghai, Antkiewicz got off the subway and found a huge shopping area.
“I was impressed with how well dressed people are, how much shopping is going on and how many goods there are in the markets,” he said.
There is simply an overall level of prosperity – at least in the cities, he said – that is different than before. “People seem to be concerned with wearing brand-name label of clothing,” he said.
Traveling and experiencing this culture makes such a difference, Antkiewicz said, when a teacher can convey to student’s personal impressions one’s own experience rather than just using books.
Professors who travel on the Fulbright-Hays scholarship have a positive impact on the whole department, said History Department Chair Dr. Colin Baxter. “Conducting research in another country is immensely important,” Baxter said. “We live in an incredibly shrinking world of globalization where the university must be on the cutting edge to understand how different peoples and cultures developed and how they impact all of us today.
“Never before has scholarly study abroad been more important.”
Antkiewicz enjoyed the unique chance to view an evolving culture while in China — and partake in its sights, sounds and tastes.
“This was an eye-opening experience,” Antkiewicz said. “I never expected to see as much change and you can’t go wrong in a city full of Chinese restaurants.”

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