Wandi Wang, assistant professor of Chinese in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Lehigh University, has been awarded a grant from the ASIANetwork Embodied Learning About Asia Program to support an innovative, multidisciplinary initiative in Wang's "Five Senses in Traditional China" course this fall.

The project is co-directed with Professor Xu Ma of Lafayette College and leverages the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges consortium. This collaboration will bring together faculty and students from Lehigh University, Lafayette College, Moravian University and Muhlenberg College.

The program moves beyond traditional classroom learning by integrating firsthand sensory experiences with theoretical scholarship. Wang, who studies premodern Chinese texts, will lead sections on visuality, smell and taste. To provide a holistic "embodied" education, the grant will fund residencies for two distinguished specialists. Professor Meimei Zhang of Occidental College, a scholar and performer of the guqin (Chinese zither), will lead explorations into the world of sound. Seng Kan Cheung, a qigong practitioner and healer, will guide students through the aspects of touch and movement, demonstrating cultural concepts of energy and balance.

"Chinese culture is profoundly grounded in sensory experience," Wang said. "I'm very grateful to ASIANetwork for sponsoring the course I've imagined: one that bridges my research in sensory studies with a teaching philosophy devoted to immersive learning."

Zhang and Cheung will each spend two weeks in residence in the Lehigh Valley, with their visits overlapping by two to three days to facilitate scholarly exchange. During her residency, Zhang will deliver two guest lectures with demonstrations at Lehigh University and participate in a campus-wide Asian cultural event. She will meet informally with faculty and students from the departments of Modern Languages and Literatures, History, Religion, Culture and Society, and Music. Zhang will also take part in a workshop co-hosted by Lehigh and Lafayette College that is open to the broader community.

Cheung will similarly deliver two guest lectures with demonstrations and participate in the Asian cultural event. Making the most of the Lehigh Valley's autumn weather and Lehigh's scenic Mountaintop campus, Cheung will lead students in outdoor, nature-based sessions of traditional qigong and tai chi. Students will also be able to observe traditional acupuncture using needles and, if they wish, try a needle-free version. He will meet with faculty and students from modern languages and literatures, the College of Health, and the departments of history and religion, culture and society. Cheung will conduct a training session on using an electronic acupuncture device for Lehigh and Lafayette, who plan to continue offering demonstrations after his residency ends. Both institutions will purchase devices for this purpose.

The overlapping residency period will include a joint academic workshop with the two visiting specialists and invited faculty from Lafayette, Lehigh and Moravian universities. The hosts will incorporate team-teaching elements, with each participating in the other guest's demonstrations, lectures and experiential sessions at both campuses to foster interdisciplinary discussion and relationship-building among students and residents.