Annual Newsletter - College of Human Ecology - Kansas State ...

Researchers and students return to China
Back row, left to right: Rachael Rutter, Jared Anderson, Nathan Hardy, Drew Vennum, Amber Vennum,
Front row, left to right: Rachel Lindstrom, Sharon Luu, Cole Ratcliffe, Caitlin Pixler.
To build connections to MFTS in China
by Jared Anderson, Assistant Professor
I
returned to China for the sixth time
in May, accompanied by colleague
Amber Vennum and her husband, Drew,
and six graduate students: Cole Ratcliffe,
Caitlin Pixler, Rachel Lindstrom, Nathan
Hardy, Sharon Luu and Rachael Rutter.
Also tagging along was my mom, clear
evidence of our family environment at
Kansas State University! The trip was the
best yet related to our continued effort to
establish relationships with universities
and to support the development of the
field of family therapy in China.
During our trip we developed a
relationship with the oldest family
therapy program in Asia, at Hong Kong
University. The faculty at HKU recently
established the Academy of Family
Therapy as a way to link family therapists
across Asia. I gave a presentation to the
academy related to working with couples
on the brink of divorce, and their program
director, Wai-Yung Lee, did a live case
consultation as part of our crosscultural
exchange.
We again visited our colleagues at
the branch campus of Beijing Normal
University in Zhuhai. Amber gave a
presentation on trends in emerging adult
romantic relationships, and then we
provided an afternoon focused on case
consultations. The department head, Liu
Jianxin, is very interested in developing
a family therapy program in that region
starting in 2013, and we talked about
both research and clinical collaborations
that could develop as a result of our
ongoing relationship.
We lead a discussion on family therapy
at South China Normal University hosted
by our old friend Dr. Zheng Fuming and
met with students interested in our
graduate programs in family studies and
human services. We ended our trip at
Beijing Normal University-Beijing and
met with faculty Fang Xiaoyi and students
of the only established family therapy
program in mainland China. We had an
excellent exchange of ideas and potential
collaborative efforts.
4
While at BNU we met with our friend and
colleague Liu Wenli and her graduate
students to map out manuscript ideas
for the next year. In conjunction with Dr.
Liu and her students, we collected survey
data from 200 young adults and their
romantic partners — 400 individuals —
to study the factors that are associated
with young adult romantic relationship
development and success in China.
Finally, I gave a lecture on family
formation trends, young adult romantic
relationship development, and family
therapy for faculty and students at BNU.
As a result, I’m in discussions with several
students about a career in family therapy.
During our two weeks in China, we also
found time to take in the sites, from
Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, to the Sun-Yat
Sen memorial in Guangzhou, to the Great
Wall, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven
and Tiannamen Square in Beijing. We
met a lot of great people and ate a lot
of great food!
As you can see, we had a busy and very
productive trip (and I didn’t even mention