Students majoring in Chinese Studies will necessarily be engaged in rigorous intellectual exchanges within global contexts, as every topic connects to the East-West paradigm. Specifically, through our courses on Chinese language, culture, or literature, students learn ways of managing impending issues concerning human conditions from fresh aspects: social conscience (altruism), human rights (humaneness), poverty and social justice (taxation, commerce, and land reform), governing styles (legalism, Daoism, and Confucianism), environmentalism (Daoism), religion (morality and self-cultivation), and more. Together, these courses translate to a good understanding of not only China's recent rise from a closed Communist society to a "government-controlled capitalist" country but also of the thousands of years' traditions (i.e., Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism) that are still deeply rooted in the contemporary Chinese psyche.

Our courses provide theoretical and historical insights as well as practical and contemporary skills required for students to demarcate a clearer career path within the plethora of fields related to Asia, such as economics, political science, computer science, arts, education, and communication.

Course Catalog

Courses in Chinese Studies

Elementary Chinese I

The goals for this course are for students to master the pinyin Romanization system and to acquire basic communication skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing Mandarin Chinese. CHIN 161 is open only to beginners in Chinese or those with two years or less of high school Chinese.

Elementary Chinese II

This course is a continuation of Elementary Chinese I. Students will continue to develop the language skills they acquired in Elementary Chinese I. Prerequisite: CHIN 161 or qualifying score on the placement test.

First-Year Seminar

A seminar focused on a theme related to Chinese Studies. Open only to first-year students.

Intermediate Chinese I

Course work helps students to develop four linguistic skills (speaking, writing, listening and reading) in Chinese at a more advanced level. Course work emphasizes drills, conversation and grammar. The goals are for students to acquire the following skills: to pronounce modern standard Chinese, to write words using both characters and pinyin Romanization system, to converse in more complicated sentences based on grammatical structures introduced in this course and to write essays. Prerequisite: CHIN 162 or qualifying score on the placement test.

Intermediate Chinese II

A continuation of CHIN 261. Prerequisite: CHIN 261 or qualifying score on the placement test.

Topics in Chinese

Topics in the Chinese language. May be repeated with different topics for credit.

Advanced Chinese I

Reading and discussion of advanced Chinese materials. Exercise in speaking the language and in writing compositions. Prerequisite: CHIN 262 or qualifying score on the placement test.

Advanced Chinese II

A continuation of CHIN 361. Prerequisite: CHIN 361 or qualifying score on the placement test.

Advanced Readings and Projects in Chinese

Open to advanced students in Chinese. May be repeated for credit.