Mike Foley's blog
[Story and photos by Mike Foley, who accompanied the group: Published originally in the BYU-Hawaii “Newsroom” in July 2006]
Eleven BYU-Hawaii students and alumni, accompanied by two International Cultural Studies professors and their respective families, recently returned to campus after spending four weeks studying intensive Mandarin in Shanghai and another week visiting historic sites in Beijing. One of the faculty members called the trip a “life-changing experience.”
Blog entry and photos by Mike Foley
[NOTE: In this previously published blog entry, I describe part of my 2006 trip to Shanghai and Beijing as part of a BYU-Hawaii Study Abroad trip. In Shanghai our group of 11 students, accompanied by Drs. Chad Compton, David and Yi-Fen Beus and members of their families, stayed at the six-story Fudan University Guesthouse [picturted at right], which is located next door to the international student language center.
The guest house is essentially an old hotel (sorta’ like the former Laie Inn). I thought you might be interested in a few details about our lifestyle there: [Read more…]
Blog entry and photos by Mike Foley (containing excerpts from my previously published China journal, July 2009]:
When our BYU-Hawaii study group was there in July 2006, Shanghai — and I understand many of the other major urban areas of China — were (and presumably still are) undergoing a tremendous building boom. There were immense construction projects underway everywhere, some in time for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and others for the World Expo, which is scheduled to take place in Shanghai in 2010. All of this makes for some interesting contrasts. [Read more…]
[Blog and photos by Mike Foley: Originally published July 17, 2009]
Shanghai, 2006, with the Yellow River and Bund in the foreground
In July 2006 a small group of BYU–Hawaii students, professors and family, and I participated in the China Study Abroad program that took us to Shanghai for four weeks of intensive Mandarin and other coursework at Fudan University, followed by a week of touring around Beijing.
Though I have already forgotten most of the Mandarin we learned, the rest of the experience was unforgettable for me. I published quite a few of my impressions in the BYUH Alumni Blog at the time, but those are now well buried . . . and I thought I would reprise some of them here.
[More photo caption: The central commercial district pictured is just a small part of Shanghai’s skyline which, with a population of approximately 17 million when we were there, was said to be punctuated with over 2,000 high-rise buildings.] [Read more…]
[Story and photo by Mike Foley, originally published in Kaleo, April 9, 1998] Tuione Pulotu shows his nearly completed Hawaiian wa’a kaulua. When the young man from the tiny island of Fangai in Tonga’s Ha’apai group first visited Ala Moana Shopping Center in 1961, he fell in love with Hawaiian tikis. “I really admired them,” said Tuione […]
Two brothers who graduated from Kahuku High in the mid-70s have seen their Sunset Beach bakery grow dramatically because of a commitment to high quality products, such as their best-selling chilled chocolate haupia [Hawaiian coconut custard] and cream pie. Glenn and Ted Nakamura told BYU-Hawaii business students during the Entrepreneurship Lecture Series on Feb. 3, […]
[Story and photo by Mike Foley: Published originally in the online BYU-Hawaii “Newsroom,” September 26, 2003] Elder R. Lanier Britsch [pictured at left], a service missionary working on writing the 40-year history of the Polynesian Cultural Center, traced the close ties between BYU-Hawaii and the popular visitor attraction during the University’s Sept. 25 devotional address. […]
[Story and photos by Mike Foley, originally published online in the BYU-Hawaii Newsroom, October 7, 2004. Kester has since finished his PhD and the Oxford University Press will soon publish his dissertation as a book.] Matthew Kester [pictured at right], who graduated from BYU-Hawaii in 1999 and is a Ph.D. candidate in Pacific history at […]
