Spring

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of Classical lyric poetry. The emphasis is on learning how to read poems in the original, but some critical writings in English on Chinese poetry and poetics will also be assigned to provide a context for interpretation.

This three-quarter series are intended for heritage speakers of Chinese who already have intermediate level ability to understand and speak mandarin Chinese in daily communication, although they may have some accent or some difficulty using the language in formal settings. While all the communicative skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing will be trained in CHIN 23100, the emphasis will be on standard Mandarin pronunciation, discourse level discussion on topics about modern China, and advanced reading and writing. The class meets for three one-hour sessions a week.

This three-quarter sequence is intended for bilingual/heritage speakers of Mandarin Chinese. Paralleled with the Intermediate sequence for non-heritage speakers, the goal of this sequence is to further develop students’ reading, speaking, and writing skills by dealing with topics in personal settings and some academic or professional settings. Upon completing this sequence, students are expected to pass the Practical Proficiency Test to earn a certificate on their transcript. The class meets for three one-hour sessions a week.

Open to both grads and undergrads. This sequence is designed to prepare students for academic research and activities in a Chinese language environment. Modern classic essays, documentary film and TV broadcasts will be included among the teaching materials. Students will learn not only general listening, speaking, and reading skills but also academic writing. Class meets for three one-hour sessions each week. Students can arrange two additional one-on-one sessions to prepare for assigned language projects.

This sequence introduces a range of influential literary works and scholarly essays on Chinese cultural and social issues from the 1920s to the 1990s. Students will not only expand their vocabulary and knowledge of grammatical structures, but also learn sophisticated speaking and writing skills through intensive readings and discussions. Class meets for three one-hour sessions each week..

The goal of this sequence is to help students develop advanced proficiency in reading, listening, speaking, and writing. This sequence emphasizes more advanced grammatical structures. We begin with discussion in Chinese on topics relevant to modern China and then shift to authentic Chinese texts in an effort to better prepare students to deal with original Chinese source materials. Discussion in Chinese required. The class meets for five one-hour sessions a week.

Part 3 of this sequence aims to enhance students' reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills by dealing with topics at an intermediate linguistic level. In addition to mastering the content of the textbook, students are required to complete two language projects each quarter. Chinese computing skills are also taught. Class meets for five one-hour sessions each week.

Part 3 of this three-quarter sequence introduces the fundamentals of modern Chinese to bilingual speakers. Bilingual Speakers are those who can speak Chinese but do not know how to read or write. By the end of the spring quarter, students should have a basic knowledge of Chinese grammar and vocabulary. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are equally emphasized. Accurate pronunciation is also stressed. A video project is required in spring quarter, which will be entered in the competition for the Chinese Video Project Award. Class meets for three one-hour sessions each week MWF.

Part 3 of this three-quarter sequence introduces the fundamentals of modern Chinese. By the end of the spring quarter, students should have a basic knowledge of Chinese grammar and vocabulary. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are equally emphasized. Accurate pronunciation is also stressed. A video project is required in spring quarter, which will be entered in the competition for the Chinese Video Project Award. Class meets for five one-hour sessions each week. Additional small group discussions of 40 minutes per week will be arranged. Maximum enrollment for each section is 18. Must be taken for a letter grade. No auditors permitted.

This course guides students through critical readings of primary historical documents from approximately 1800 through 1950. these documents are translated sentence by sentence, and then historiographically analyzed. Most of these documents are from the nineteenth century. Genres include public imperial edicts, secret imperial edicts, secret memorials to the throne from officials, official reports to superiors and from superiors, funerial essays, depositions ("confessions"), local gazetteers (fangzhi), newspapers, and periodicals. To provide an introduction to these genres, the first six weeks of the course will use the Fairbank and Kuhn textbook The Rebellion of Chung Jen-chieh (Harvard-Yanjing Institute). The textbook provides ten different genres of document with vocabulary glosses and grammatical explanations; all documents relate to an 1841–42 rebellion in Hubei province. Each week prior to class students electronically submit a written translation of the document or documents to be read; a day after the class they electronically submit a corrected translation of the document or documents read. A fifteen-page term paper based on original sources in documentary Chinese is also required.