Jiangnan Water Town Rice Culture: Rural Revitalization Study Tour in the Digital Era

In the Jiangnan water towns adorned with grey bricks and black tiles, the fragrance of rice has lingered for thousands of years, while digital waves surge across the farmland paths. Taking Wuzhen and Yucun in China as open classrooms, this course invites international students to engage in an immersive dialogue between traditional culture and technological innovation.

Centered on rice cultivation culture, the course explores the profound farming wisdom and clan culture of Jiangnan water towns. From crisscrossing rice fields to elegant white-walled and black-tiled residences, it decodes the Eastern living philosophy of harmony between humanity and nature. Meanwhile, focusing on modern technologies such as the Internet of Things and smart agriculture, participants will witness how digital technologies revitalize ancient villages on field visits, experiencing the integrated scene of drones cruising over rice fields and intelligent systems protecting ancient bridges. Through classroom learning, water town workshop investigations and cross-cultural seminars, international students will participate in case deductions of rural digital transformation and discuss the innovative value of blockchain technology for intangible cultural heritage inheritance in traditional mortise and tenon craft workshops.

During the study tour, students will wander through Wuzhen Internet Town and Nanxun silk workshops in the daytime, discovering the algorithmic genes embedded in silk brocade weaving. At night, they will attend thematic salons amid boat sculls and lantern lights, analyzing contemporary topics of traditional culture and artificial intelligence from a multilingual perspective. Upon completion of the course, every student will finish a cross-temporal cultural defense with a self-designed "digital revitalization plan for traditional villages".

What You Will Gain: Master the millennial clan culture codes of Jiangnan water towns, trace the technological development track of the World Internet Conference, obtain the cultural key to interpreting Chinese-style modernization amid the harmony of traditional punt boats and cloud computing, and become a cross-cultural innovation pioneer breaking disciplinary and cultural boundaries.

Founded in 1940, Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) is one of China’s top national universities. It has been successively selected as a key university under the “211 Project”, “985 Project” and the national “Double First-Class” Initiative. Enjoying a high academic reputation at home and abroad, BIT was ranked 101–150th in the 2024 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and 179th in the U.S. News Best Global Universities Rankings. It has also obtained the highest-level certification for the quality of higher education for international students in China. The university has established a comprehensive academic system consisting of 22 schools, 9 major discipline fields and 33 first-level discipline doctoral programs, among which 6 disciplines are top-tier in China and 11 have reached world-class standards. Relying on 21 national-level scientific research platforms, BIT has achieved breakthroughs in core technologies in aerospace, robotics and other fields, accomplishing more than 40 “Firsts in New China”.

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