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Charles Kilord Alford Wang, member of Furman\u2019s Class of 1924 \/ Credit: Bonhomie.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cFrom the far away land of shrines and temples came one who desired the educational training of the Western world,\u201d it began. \u201cComing as he did, a cultured Christian, and maintaining his high ideals, Wang has won the admiration of all his fellow students.\u201d<\/p>\n
The yearbook notes that Wang, a resident of Kaifeng, China, and the first Asian student to finish a four-year degree at Furman, \u201cspeaks his mother tongue with marvelous brilliancy.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the digital humanities project \u201cUntold Journeys<\/a>: Exploring Furman and Greenville\u2019s Connections with Asia,\u201d the yearbook passage reveals as much about the attitudes prevalent at that time in a small Southern Baptist college as it does about Wang himself, said Kylie Fisher<\/a>, an assistant professor of art history.<\/p>\n \u201cThis idea of othering and the concept of Orientialism is very much present, and that continues for several decades,\u201d said Fisher, who advised student researchers Eva Kiser \u201923 and Eli Kibler \u201924. \u201cThere\u2019s always this juxtaposition between Asian students and their white peers. Sometimes we forget that we\u2019re all just human or we\u2019re all just young college students.\u201d<\/p>\n Published as a ArcGIS StoryMaps presentation, \u201cUntold Journeys\u201d began last year<\/a> with a summer research fellowship<\/a>. Diving into the James B. Duke Library\u2019s Special Collections and Archives<\/a>, Kiser, an Asian studies and anthropology double major, and Kibler, an English and Asian studies double major and film studies minor, studied the beginning of Southern Baptist missionary work in Asia in the 19th century.<\/p>\n Gordon Poteat, a 1910 Furman graduate, traveled with his wife, Helen Anne Carruthers Poteat, to China as a missionary in the early 20th century.<\/p><\/div>\n They also examined the scrapbook and memoirs of missionary Gordon Poteat, son of Edwin McNeil Poteat, Furman\u2019s president from 1903 to 1918. An interactive map on the \u201cUntold Journeys\u201d site traces Poteat\u2019s travels in China, starting in 1915.<\/p>\n Combing through decades of Furman publications and researching documents in the South Carolina Room at the Greenville County Public Library helped Kibler expand his research skills more than he anticipated, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cNow I have the experience of practicing physical archival research, not simply online scholarly research,\u201d said Kibler, who expects to use those skills in graduate school. \u201cI can safely say that I am fully equipped to take on any investigative task I come across on my academic journey.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUntold Journeys\u201d shows the evolution of an academic field at Furman, from the first professors specializing in Asia through the creation of the Department of Asian Studies<\/a> in 1989 and its growth into one of the largest Asian studies programs among Southeastern private liberal arts and sciences universities.<\/p>\n Fisher, Kibler and Kiser were able to continue their work thanks to grant funds from the Furman Humanities Center<\/a> and the Department of Asian Studies. \u201cUntold Journeys\u201d has added interviews with Jim Leavell and Shusuke Yagi<\/a>, founding members of Furman\u2019s Asian studies department; Kailash Khandke<\/a>, the first professor of South Asian heritage hired at Furman; and Katherine Kaup<\/a>, the James B. Duke Professor of Asian Studies and Politics and International Affairs. These interviews were also added to the university\u2019s Oral Histories<\/a> project.<\/p>\nRooted in missionary work<\/h3>\n
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Capturing oral histories<\/h3>\n
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