Couple to present on the China Dream at next President’s Colleagues meeting
Couple to present on the China Dream at next President’s Colleagues meeting
Dr. Frederick Crook and Dr. Elizabeth Crook will present “The China Dream: What It Means for the United States” at the next installment of the President’s Colleagues of Dixie State University meeting series.
The presentation is set to take place at noon on Feb. 5 in Lecture Hall 156 of Dixie State’s Russell C. Taylor Health Sciences Center, located on the Dixie Regional Medical Center campus at 1526 E. Medical Center Drive. The meeting is free and open for the public to attend.
The Crooks were living in China, cooperating with the China Charity Federation of the Ministry of Civil Affairs to implement charity projects, when Xi Jinping began to propagate the China Dream in 2013 after assuming the role of president of the People’s Republic of China. Since then, the couple has made nine trips to China, giving them opportunities to observe the propaganda campaign and accompanying posters.
In their President’s Colleagues of DSU presentation, the Crooks will share about the patterns they’ve noticed among the thousands of posters and the connections between the posters and Chinese press’s reports on the China Dream. Beyond the variety of China Dream messages and art styles used by the government to transmit these messages, the Crooks will discuss how reading of China’s newspapers and books regarding Xi and the China Dream forced them to look not just at how the messages are used for internal consumption to rally the masses around Xi and the Communist Party, but also the importance of the China Dream messages to China’s neighbors, especially the United States.
Frederick Crook earned a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Yong University in political science and Asian studies in 1964 and a doctorate from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 30 years as a research economist specializing in China’s rural economy. After retiring from the USDA in 1999, he served as president of The China Group, a consulting company that specializes in providing information on China’s rural economy. Additionally, he has served as a mission president for the Taiwan Taipei and the Taiwan Taichung missions from 1977 to 1980, worked in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China for 12 years and published nine books and 185 articles.
Elizabeth Crook graduated summa cum laude from BYU-Provo in political science and European studies and earned a doctorate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She has taught at the Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and Lingnan University in Hong Kong. She also has served as a senior analyst for the U.S. State Department and vice president of The China Group in Alpine. She was a humanitarian service volunteer for LDS Charities, organized the China Rural Education Foundation with Frederick and served as a volunteer for the domestic abuse prevention organization, the Chainbreaker Foundation. In addition to English, she speaks French and Mandarin Chinese.
The President’s Colleagues of DSU, established more than 20 years ago by Douglas Alder, professor emeritus and former president of Dixie State, is a group of retired professors and other professionals who live mostly in the Washington County area. Alder, who also started DSU’s Honors Program, organized the group as a way to increase academic activities on campus.
The next President’s Colleagues meeting will feature Allen Jacobi as he presents “Thirty-three Years of Practicing Law.” The lecture is set to take place at noon on March 5 in in Lecture Hall 156 of the Taylor Health Science Center.
