Courses

An introduction to spoken Mandarin and written Chinese. Providing a foundation in speaking, listening, reading, writing, and communication skills and an introduction to the Chinese culture.

An introduction to spoken Mandarin and written Chinese. Providing a foundation in speaking, listening, reading, writing, and communication skills and an introduction to the Chinese culture.

An introduction to the history, geography, literature, and social issues of China through readings, films, music, poetry, and web-based resources. Taught in English. Three class hours weekly. One unit.

How were youth as a modern concept and a social category imagined, constructed, and deconstructed? This course uses youth culture as a keyword to explore the questions of politics, identity, education, gender, class, race, and age from the late nineteenth century to the present in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Chinese American communities. As a core component of this exploration, we will explore fiction, poetry, films, and social media that constitute what we understand as youth culture in Chinese-speaking communities. All lectures, discussions and assignments will be in English. No prior knowledge required.

As a postcolonial space, Hong Kong has been a hot topic for its relationship with mainland China and Britain. In this course we will examine questions of cultural politics, identity, gender, and memory through the literary and visual representations of Hong Kong. Through close analyses of fiction, poetry, Cantopop, and films from the 1970s to the present, this course re-discovers a Hong Kong that must be unearthed through a cultural lens.

Continued focus on the development of oral and written communication skills and on the strengthening of cultural competency in Chinese through the use of written texts and multimedia resources. Five class hours weekly. One and one-quarter units each semester.

Continued focus on the development of oral and written communication skills and on the strengthening of cultural competency in Chinese through the use of written texts and multimedia resources. Five class hours weekly. One and one-quarter units each semester.

Introduction to major works in traditional Chinese literature. One Unit.

An exploration of Chinese culture through 20th- and 21st-century Chinese cinema. Taught in English. One unit.

An overview of the history and structure of the Chinese language.

Have you eaten yet? As one of the most common greetings among people in China, it suggests the important role food plays in Chinese culture and society. This course examines the Chinese culinary tradition and practice from antiquity to the present and explores diverse representations of food in historical accounts, literature, traditional arts, and the modern media. In this journey to Chinese cultures heart through its stomach, we will savor every bite: both food for thought and food for stomach. While digging into our food, we will also discuss a variety of topics related to the subject of Chinese food, such as food and culture values, food and identity, food and hunger, and Chinese food in the West. Students will develop critical eating skills and will further embrace cultural diversity through food.

This course will explore the complex forces at work in the emergence of modern China through a selection of Chinese literary texts. How was modernity perceived at the turn of the century? How did women's liberation change the face of China? How did we understand colonialism in Taiwan? How did May Fourth literature, New Sensationalism, and leftist literature negotiate questions of age, race, gender and class as well as nationally? Introducing iconic writers such as Lu Xun, Xiao Hong, Eileen Chang, and Wu Zhuoliu, and films such as New Women and Spring in Small Town, this course will chart the course of modern expressions and concerns in the Sinophone worlds of the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. All readings in English translation. No prerequisite.

In this course, we are going to examine the relationship between migration and second language acquisition. Specifically, we will focus on the Chinese migrants in the U.S. and consider what role age plays in this relationship. This course includes three sections: 1) ESL (English as Second Language) in the U.S., 2) age, cognition, and language acquisition, and 3) Teaching Chinese-born seniors English. The first section begins with an overview of the impact of various factors on second language learning for migrants in the U.S. We will discuss how factors such as age, social status, cultural origin, length of residence, distance from mother tongue to the second language, the type of migrants, etc., impact language learning in the U.S. for different communities. The second section examines how age influences second language learning. While a much larger body of second language acquisition research still focuses on children, adolescents, and young adults, second language learning in late adulthood has started to gain attention. We will learn how linguistic experiences and age-specific cognitive skills can be leveraged for language learning. The third section discusses how to teach Chinese-born seniors English by understanding their cultural and educational backgrounds, motivations, concerns, and goals.

This course provides an opportunity to learn about non-Western views of nature and helps students gain a better understanding of environmental conflicts and peacebuilding in the age of globalization. Through exploration of a series of questions regarding the environment and human-nature interactions in China, this course aims to offer both a general picture of the changing relationship between human and nature in China across different historical periods and an in-depth examination of major works and events that have reflected and/or shaped such relationship.

What is the cultural significance of girlhood in modern East Asian societies? This course uses girl culture as a keyword to explore the questions of gender, class, race, and age in various regions of East Asia including China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. As a core component of this exploration, we will explore fiction, poetry, films, anime, artworks that features major girl characters. We will also look at presentations of girl groups in K-pop and Mandopop.

This course explores the evolving concepts surrounding gender and sexuality in the Sinophone world. Scrutinizing cultural narratives of gender from the first century BC to the contemporary digital age, this course explores the variations of concepts such as desire, woman, qing (love), feminism, and queerness proliferated in imperial and modern Chinese-speaking societies. To discuss the images of marginalized gender groups in the Sinophone context, we will examine fiction, philosophy, poetry, and films from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and diasporic Chinese American communities.

Continued focus on the development of oral and written communication skills and cultural competency through the use of traditional Chinese readings and multimedia resources. Five class hours weekly. One and one-quarter units each semester.

Continued focus on the development of oral and written communication skills and cultural competency through the use of traditional Chinese readings and multimedia resources. Five class hours weekly. One and one-quarter units each semester.

Continued development of oral and written communication skills and cultural competency through the use of readings, videos, and other multimedia resources. One unit each semester.

Continued development of oral and written communication skills and cultural competency through the use of readings, videos, and other multimedia resources. One unit each semester.

This course continues its focus on the development of higher level skills in spoken Mandarin and formal, written Chinese.

An introduction to the classical literary language of China.

This course is designed to improve advanced students' modern Chinese language skills and cultural knowledge by immersing them in the advanced communication context of contemporary Chinese media. Learning materials include Chinese news media, TV series, and films.