East Asian Studies to expand course offerings

In recent years, the University has experienced a substantial enrollment increase in Chinese courses in accordance with a national trend. The East Asian Studies (EAS) department has been unable to accommodate the rising interest this year, and is planning to expand the department's offerings.

About 420 students are currently enrolled in classes focused on China or Chinese, the largest enrollment in the University's history. First-year courses are especially full, with roughly 90 students in the introductory level Chinese language classes compared to 50 last year.

The upward trend, though more drastic in the past two years, has persisted at the University since the 1950s, EAS program director Benjamin Elman said.

Despite the rise in enrollment, no new courses have been added to accommodate the increase in students due to faculty and classroom constraints.

"We welcome the interest in Chinese and will do everything we can to accommodate student interest, but of course we are constrained by factors we can't control," EAS department chair David Howell said. "We can increase the number of language teachers in response to the demand, but adding new faculty positions is more difficult."

EAS professor Perry Link said he was pleased to learn that Chinese classes were becoming more popular, but upset that there are not enough spaces in the program for all the interested students.

"Despite the recent rise in Chinese language enrollments nationwide, the ratio of Chinese students of English to American students of Chinese is still several thousand to one," he said. "This is a huge and indefensible imbalance, so of course we in the Princeton Chinese language program are eager to do whatever we can to remedy it. We are not happy that the registrar's office turned students away."

Mandarin Chinese — the primary language of 1.1 billion people — boasts more speakers than any other language in the world. English is second, with 330 million primary speakers worldwide.

Members of the EAS program, EAS department and EAS language program are discussing how best to make Chinese courses available to interested students, Elman said.

The EAS faculty will offer a series of introductory courses in conjunction with the Humanities Council this spring, Elman said. The two are also discussing whether to support an EAS-Cotsen Fellowship for a distinguished postdoctoral fellow to join the Humanities Council and EAS faculty from 2007 to 2010.

Meanwhile, schools across the country are expanding their foreign language programs to include Chinese. A New York Times article said U.S. public high schools will offer Advanced Placement Chinese classes beginning in 2006, with half of the $1.35-million funding provided by the Beijing government.

EAS concentrator Tarryn Chun '06 attributed the upward trend in enrollment partly to China's rising economic power and its impact on the American market. However, she said that while students recognize the increasing demand for Chinese literacy, they also want to learn more about the country itself.

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"There is more of a need for people who understand China, or at least understand Chinese, in business sectors and government jobs," she said. "However, in my experience at Princeton, most of the students who take the time to seriously study Chinese language, culture and history are motivated by a genuine interest in the country and its people rather than by a desire to further their own careers."

Other universities are also experiencing increased enrollment in Chinese classes. Ling Mu, Chinese programs director at Yale, said the number of students taking Chinese is at an all-time high. This year, enrollment has expanded from 240 to 340, with the number of elementary and advanced students almost doubling from last year.

She said Yale is responding to the trend by hiring more teachers, adding more class sections and strengthening study abroad opportunities. Last year, Yale provided full scholarships for 60 students to study in China.

The burgeoning of Chinese programs at universities like Yale puts more pressure on Princeton to expand its own curriculum and study abroad programs, EAS concentrator Robert Kennelley '06 said.

"Princeton supports students to go to Beijing, but it should aggressively expand its monetary support of Chinese study abroad options beyond what currently exists," he said. "It is really in the University's best interests to have alumni that are equipped to be active in what is sure to be one of the most, if not the most influential parts of the world for the rest of this century."