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Class in the Spotlight
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Zhang provides interdisciplinary, cross-cultural perspective
 Photo by Dennis Burnett Weihua Zhang incorporates her Chinese roots and her specialization in African-American writing into her composition and literature courses at SCAD. By Monique Bos Published: Friday, February 2, 2007 When Weihua Zhang began to look for a teaching job in 1995, she found herself in a unique dilemma: Because of her cultural and ethnic background and her academic specialization, most colleges wouldn’t consider her. “I applied to probably 100 colleges, but because I’m Chinese and concentrated in African-American literature, nobody wanted me,” she said. “I loved literature, so I didn’t want to change, and I stuck with it.” Her persistence paid off. The Savannah College of Art and Design was the first institution to grant her an interview, in May 1996, and she was offered a job teaching composition and literature. She’s been in Savannah ever since. At SCAD, she teaches an array of courses, including African-American Literature, African-American Novels, Asian-American Literature and composition — and being at an art college also enables her to provide an interdisciplinary perspective that she thinks is crucial. “I strongly believe in an interdisciplinary approach. I like to introduce students to the time period when particular work was being produced and look at the history and culture. I think that allows a deeper understanding of the work,” she said. “It definitely allows students to become critical readers, not just take the text at face value.” Zhang said she recently developed the African-American Literature class, which has proven to be so popular that a second section was added for winter quarter. She also likes the approach of the general education department at SCAD, she said. “We emphasize that you want to be an all-around person,” she explained. “You can be the best artist in the world, but if you’re not able to articulate verbally and in writing, you’re not going to be so successful.” Zhang’s introduction to English came while she was still a high school student in China. “My generation all had to go to the country and receive reeducation from the peasants,” she said. “I learned English there. After two years in the country, we were able to have a job, and my job was teaching English at a coal mine company.” She entered college in 1977 as part of a landmark class — the first group of students after the Cultural Revolution who could choose their own majors, rather than having a specialty selected for them. “We were the first class to have an entrance exam,” she said. “You had to decide in advance the school and major you wanted, so you had to think about which major would get you into which school.” Zhang wanted to study English, so she opted to pursue literature instead, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northeast Normal University in Changchun. She received her Master of Arts degree from Nankai University in Tianjin with a focus on American literature. She wrote her thesis on Ernest Hemingway. However, when she had a chance to study and lecture at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania as part of an exchange program, she learned about aspects of American writing and thought that were completely new to her. “I … took a class called American Modernists 1900-45. In that class, we learned about the writers of the Harlem Renaissance. It was the first time I’d ever read them,” she said. “I felt like I could identify with and relate to them so much. Back in China, everything was controlled by the state, the government — your job, where you lived, it was all decided for you. When I read the African-American writers, I felt a lot of their struggles were similar to what I experienced, especially relating to feminism.” Issues of women’s rights and equality were unfamiliar to her, but reading such books as “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan and studying black woman writers proved illuminating. “I felt like that’s it exactly! That’s me, because in China, there were four students in my graduate program — two women and two men. When we graduated, even though the two of us women had better grades, we weren’t able to stay to teach in the English department,” Zhang said. “The reason was because women got married and had children too quickly, so they wanted men. I didn’t even consider that gender discrimination until I came here.” While her male classmates taught in the English department, Zhang was assigned to the tourist department, where she provided English instruction to future hotel managers and tour guides. “That was considered less intense,” she said. She entered an interdisciplinary Doctor of Arts program in humanistic studies at the State University of New York-Albany. Her concentrations were women’s studies and black women writers, and her dissertation examined the work of Alice Walker, Toni Morrison and Gloria Naylor. “I feel like I identify a lot with both black and women writers, especially when they deal with inequality, freedom and lack of opportunities,” she explained. While she enjoys sharing her insights and perspectives with students, she said being in the classroom also challenges her on both academic and personal levels. “You have to know a little bit about every field, every major,” she explained. “The students constantly push you to learn and engage.” She also has become more outgoing, she said. “I think I grow with my teaching and the interaction with students. I was a very shy person … and I never wanted to stand out. Being a professor, you have to be outgoing; you need to get students really engaged in the discussion,” she explained. Zhang also has become involved in the local Chinese community and curated two photography exhibitions. The first focused on the history and experiences of early immigrants. The second “emphasized the fact that Chinese were not just restaurant owners but professors, artists, musicians, doctors and lawyers,” she said. “I wanted to show all the different contributions Chinese Americans have made.” While working with old photos, Zhang also became interested in pursuing black-and-white photography. She took two classes at SCAD and said that provided her with insights into students’ experience. “I consider that I have more in common with students now,” she said. “I’ve become able to see things from both sides. I’ve had to meet deadlines and work with a group. All that, I think, makes me a better teacher.” Zhang has contributed book reviews and a history column, “Did You Know?”, to The Chronicle. She has published poetry online and also has had several pieces published in Chinese publications. She recently received a Presidential Fellowship for Faculty Development that will enable her to work on a large-scale project, tentatively titled “Dream Variations: A Journey Across Two Continents, A Memoir.” But Zhang’s main passion remains her teaching. “I think the best part is when your past students e-mail to thank you,” she said. “That’s what keeps you going — to know that what you’re doing is being appreciated and making a difference. I think I’m able to share a lot of things that students from this country haven’t read or haven’t paid attention to, so I can offer them a different perspective.”  |
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