Of Thin Places and Classroom Spaces: Lin Yutang and the Case for Irresponsible Traveling

Abstract

This essay introduces a short-term study abroad program to Taiwan that was designed to meet the needs of students enrolled at a metropolitan university that serves a largely non-traditional student population. The structure of the program reflected ideas found in the writings of Lin Yutang, a writer who was known throughout the middle decades of the twentieth century as the “Interpreter of the East to the West.” Lin’s notion of “irresponsible traveling” served to challenge the common practice in study tours where students travel together as a group and are afforded relatively little time to experience a place on their own or without supervision. Travel journals written by the students were analyzed to assess whether--given the opportunity to “splash-about ramble”(浪游)--they were able to demonstrate what Lin referred to as the“capacity to see things.” The study includes recommendations for ways to build the foundation for a successful short-term study abroad program.