Chinese Program

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Why Study Chinese?

The recent expansion of Chinese-language and cultural programs in American educational institutions has been phenomenal. According to an estimate made by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, the number of American students learning Mandarin Chinese has risen from about 5,000 six years ago to around 50,000 at public high schools and another 50,000 outside the public system, in private and specialist schools. The number of students in U.S. universities has also increased greatly. According to MLA’s quadrennial foreign language enrollment survey (published on 13, November, 2007), in 2006, there were over 51,582 college students enrolled in Chinese language programs, representing a 51% increase from 2002, one of the two largest increases among those enrolled in foreign languages taught in the United States. Marty Abbott, director of education at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, calls this expansion an “explosion.” He further remarks, “It really is unprecedented. People are looking at China as a force to be reckoned with…And to ensure that the U.S has the ability to conduct trade, to sell our goods, and to work with the Chinese, certainly having an understanding of Chinese language and culture is an advantage.”

The rapid growth in the number of students of Chinese language and culture nationwide indeed reflects America’s recognition of China as one of the major economic and geo-political forces and of their need to prepare for future successes in an increasingly globalized economy. As the 2008 Beijing Olympics is approaching and the statistics indicate that, in 2008, China will become the world’s biggest exporter, the second biggest importer and the third biggest economy, and overtaking America as the country with the largest number of internet users, people are consistently asking: are we prepared for a century with Chinese characteristics, or are we prepared for, to quote the title of a cover story of the Newsweek “China’s Century”.
To be sure, economics is not the only reason that motivates many students to pursue knowledge of Chinese language and culture. While the Chinese civilization is one the longest and most enriched the world has ever known, the Chinese language features a written system that is pictographic, symbolic and phonetic. It is one of the most distinctive written systems in the history of human languages. Calligraphy, the time-honored practice of Chinese characters that is linked to both art and spiritual cultivation, has drawn generations of students of Chinese. Furthermore, the transformation of China, composed of three interrelated elements--economic reemergence, socio-political transformation and intellectual reinterpretation--invites a wide range of theoretical and practical challenges in human history: modernization and the preservation of traditional culture, development and environmental protection, economic growth and socio- political reforms, global trade and proper use of local human and natural resources, etc. The inquiries into those issues generated by China’s socio-economic transformation have generated enormous numbers of scholarly works in the fields of sociology, anthropology, political science, history, literature and theories of colonialism and post-modernism; and thus made Chinese Studies in general one of the most stimulating and fast growing fields for scholars and students crossing the boundaries of humanities and social science.