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Professor Shares Wisdom from Travel

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Martin at the Floating Mountain Tea Farm, Jiangsu Province, China
Martin at the Floating Mountain Tea Farm, Jiangsu Province, China

Pastoral Poet and Journalism Professor Rodger Martin Brings Wisdom from Asia to Classroom

Rodger Martin, Keene State journalism professor and pastoral poet, recently returned from a six-week visit to Vietnam and China. Martin, who served in the Vietnam War, was awarded funds from the Bruce Kellner/Monadnock Fellowship to reconnect with the country of Vietnam, conduct lectures at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics (SUIBE), and provide poetry readings at Nanjing University.

Martin first spent eight days in Vietnam, revisiting some of the areas he remembered when he was there from 1967 to 1968. “When I was stationed there during the war, there was a particular mountain that Americans couldn’t climb, because we controlled the top and bottom of the mountain and the enemy had control over the middle. This mountain is now a theme park, with a gondola. I also stood on the spot where I earned a Purple Heart—this location is now a national park for trees. It was incredible, and comforting to see that this country had healed after such a treacherous history.”

The next five weeks were spent in China. Martin lectured at SUIBE on several pastoral poets and their works, and he read his own poetry and Paradise Lost, to the students at Nanjing University. Martin’s poetry made quite an impression on the young people there, including a poem that he wrote about a sculpture on the SUIBE campus. Zhou Xiaojin, English professor in the Department of Foreign Languages, said that Martin’s poem about the anchor on their campus is widely circulated among students, and he’s never read so many Chinese translations by students of a poem. “It’s very exciting,” Xiaojin said.

Martin also got a first-hand look at how the Chinese media operates, which will help inform his Journalism classes. He was in Shanghai when a cruise ship sank in the Yangtze River—the media reports were carefully crafted and controlled in such a way that the consumers of media heard reports that were edited and scripted by the Chinese government. He had little access to social media because Facebook, Google, and YouTube are blocked, and Western news sites are censored.

Back at Keene State College, Martin says that his experiences in both countries will offer students in his classroom new perspectives, and inspire his future poetry. From the limitation and manipulation of press coverage in China, to profound reminders that time heals, and that we are all human, regardless of where we live, what we eat, and what our philosophies are—all of these understandings will be integral in his teaching this coming year.

“I am grateful that I had the opportunity to reunite with the country of Vietnam, and to represent pastoral poetry in China. I am looking forward to sharing my experiences with the students at Keene State. There are lessons to learn, and new ways of thinking about the role that journalism plays around the world,” said Martin.

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