The economic
transformations of East Asia during the past decade have impacted the
American design and planning profession profoundly. In various Pacific coast
cities, many leading design and planning firms are engaging in important
development projects in China. Job openings are being created for
entry-level designers and planners who have a strong East Asian background
and are also willing to work in the East Asian offices in Tokyo, Shanghai,
and Beijing, among others.
In addition, East
Asian immigrant populations have rapidly increased in many communities in
the U.S. For example, according to Census 2000, there are more than 210,000
Asian residents living in Maryland. In Montgomery County, one of every ten
residents embodies Asian cultural heritage. In order to provide these Asian
American clients with design and planning services sensitive to unique
cultural needs and preferences, we recognize the need to work
collaboratively in a cross-cultural setting.
Investigating the current East Asian
curricula in the field of Landscape Architecture in the United States
We conducted a telephone survey regarding the Asian
curriculum in the landscape architecture programs in the United States. Our
survey time was between October 2004 and February 2005. We successfully
telephone interviewed ninety-five percent of the landscape architecture
programs (79 out of 83 programs answered our survey). We asked each program
the following questions:
1. How
many students in your program?
2. How
many international students in your program?
3. How
many Asian international students in your program?
4. How
many Asian American students in your program?
5. Does
your program offer Asian related curriculum? If yes, how many does your
program offer and what are they?
According our survey, there are eighty-three landscape
architecture programs nationwide, including undergrad and graduate programs.
There are 6,287 students in 2004-2005. 286 (4.5%) of them are international
students. Among the 286 international students, 152 (53%) of them are from
Asia. We were unable to identify the numbers of Asian American students
because many programs do not track this information. Among the eighty-three
programs, only eleven programs (13%) offered one or two curricula related to
Asian landscape. All curricula are elective courses, a choice of modules, or
study abroad programs. All instructors who offer the courses are the ones
who have personal interests in Asian landscapes and/or have connections with
Asian partners. Most instructors who offer Asian curricula in their programs
were not aware of other instructors’ courses and programs.
This survey provides us an overall picture of Asian
landscape curriculum transformation in today’s American landscape education.
We discovered the following issues that are important but challenging our
effort of bringing Asian related curriculum into the field of landscape
architecture:
1. There is an urgent need to establish an Asian
related landscape curriculum as a required course, or develop Asian related
modules within required courses. Based on our survey, all Asian related
curricula are elective courses. Most American students might never consider
taking it.
2. It is critical to develop a network or database for
educators who are interested in developing Asian related curricula, because
most Asian materials are inaccessible for educators who do not speak the
particular language.
3. It is important to establish two-way exchange and
learning within Asian curriculum. According to our survey, most of the Asian
curricula are taught as a one-way learning process, like traditional
lecture/studio model. Based on our Meijigakuin-Maryland exchange experience,
we realized that our Maryland students were profoundly impacted by the
personal interactions that they developed with their Japanese partners
during the short period of time (7 days). We conclude that developing
partnership with Asian students is a new way to construct Asian landscape
curricula. American students can learn Asian, as well as American, culture
through their Asian partners’ brown eyes.
