Summer School Cologne - Chiang Mai: "Chinese Infrastructures and Common Notions of Wealth and Prosperity", August 1–16, 2025
The Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne organized the interdisciplinary Summer School “Chinese Infrastructures and Common Notions of Wealth and Prosperity” in Thailand from August 1–16, 2025, in cooperation with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the China–Southeast Asia Studies Center at Chiang Mai University. For Cologne’s Master’s and PhD students, it was part of the graduate course “Chinese Infrastructures and Mobilities,” exploring the socio-cultural dimensions of China-centered globalization. Focusing on how local concepts of prosperity intersect with Chinese infrastructure projects in Southeast Asian border regions, particularly along the Mekong and the former “Golden Triangle,” the program combined lectures, workshops, and excursions, encouraging critical reflection, field experience, and international exchange.
A total of 17 Master’s and PhD students participated in CSS, including 10 from the University of Cologne (Anthropology, Geography, Regional Studies China) and 7 from Chiang Mai University (Anthropology and Sociology).
The program featured daily lectures, seminars, working groups, and plenary sessions. Prof. Susanne Brandtstädter (UoC) led seminars on assigned readings, while Dr. Panitda Saiyarod (CMU) and Amtul Shaheen (UoC) facilitated working groups that developed discussion points later presented and debated in plenary sessions with lecturers and participants. The CSS opened with an introductory lecture by Prof. Susanne Brandtstädter (UoC) titled “Wealth Beyond Money,” in which she examined how wealth is culturally constructed, socially distributed, and morally evaluated across different societies. This was followed by a distinguished lecture by Prof. Yos Santasombat (CMU) titled “Global China: Civilizing Missions in Southeast Asia,” where he analyzed how the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) reshapes regional infrastructure, economic relations, and political dynamics in Southeast Asia.
Dr. Simon Rowedder (NUS) examined how infrastructures in northern Laos transform local experiences of time, movement, and everyday life, showing communities adaptation to changing material and social landscapes. Prof. Pinkaew Laungaramsri’s (CMU) analyzed how state expansion and growing Chinese economic influence are transforming the political, social, and economic dynamics of frontier communities in Myanmar. Dr. Nanny Kim’s (UoC) explored mining activities in China’s Far Southwest during the Ming and Qing periods, focusing on the migration and mobility of mine workers, recruitment networks and travel routes. Dr. Panitda Saiyarod’s (CMU) examined how local communities adapt to and resist the social, economic and environmental impacts of Chinese-backed railway projects in the region. Amtul Shaheen’s (UoC) explored how Yunnanese Muslims utilize religious infrastructures to preserve their cultural identity across Thailand and Taiwan. Prof. Susanne Brandtstädter and Zhang Zixuan examined how the descendants of KMT soldiers resettled in border regions and engaged in tea cultivation as a means of adapting to local economies.
From August 8–12, students joined a cultural excursion to border regions, visiting the Golden Triangle SEZ (Laos), the Opium Museum, and a local NGO that demonstrated how communities document and resist Chinese-backed projects affecting the Mekong River and local livelihoods. The summer school concluded on August 15 with the plenary “What Have We Learned?”, followed by a discussion of students’ individual projects.
Overall, the summer school combined rigorous academic engagement, cross-cultural exchange, and experiential learning. It equipped students with a nuanced understanding of infrastructure, regional politics, and socio-cultural transformations in Southeast Asian borderlands under China’s growing influence.
