Chinese 401B (Advanced Chinese – Issues in Modern China) will feature a community-based learning activity on Shantang Street in Suzhou, focusing on heritage and modernization during Session 2 of the 2025–26 academic year.
Shantang Street is a nationally recognized historic and cultural area, known for its ancient architecture and stone bridges. In recent years, many parts of the neighborhood have been renovated for tourism. Some local residents still live there; they are known as zhenhe renjia, meaning “people living along the riverbank.”
This activity is designed to provide international students with an immersive cultural experience, allowing them to interact with the local residents of Shantang Street, understand their lives in both the past and present, and explore how modernization and tourism are reshaping the historical community
