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2025-2026 Chinese Courses

The Chinese Department offers courses in Chinese language and in Chinese literature, media, and film, both in translation and the original.

All Chinese literature, media, and film courses are taught in English and are cross-listed as Chinese (Chin) and Literature (Lit). If you would like the opportunity to work with course materials in the original Chinese, you should enroll under the Chin designation and expect to take part in additional one-hour meeting weekly to read, discuss, and translate course-related materials with your professor and your peers. 

A full list of courses offered by the Chinese department can be found here. All classes are in-person unless otherwise specified. 

• Spring courses

Fall Courses

Chin 111 - First-Year Chinese

Two-unit yearlong course; one unit per semester. A beginner’s course in standard (Mandarin) modern spoken and written Chinese, aimed at building a solid foundation in all its aspects: pronunciation (especially the tones), syntax, and basic vocabulary. Attention is given to a balanced development of all the basic skills of the language: listening and reading comprehension, speaking, and writing. Pinyin is the romanization system used in this and all other Chinese language courses. Both the traditional and simplified characters are taught. Students are expected to read both and write one of the two versions. Lecture-conference.

Chin 211 - Second-Year Chinese

Two-unit yearlong course; one unit per semester. This course is designed to build the skills of students who have studied at least one year of Chinese (or equivalent) to achieve intermediate-level proficiency in the oral and written use of the language through speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Emphasis in the course will be placed on learning to recognize and reproduce the natural flow of the spoken language, expanding vocabulary, and learning to write short essays in Chinese. Prerequisite: Chinese 110 or acceptance through placement test. Lecture-conference.

Chin 311 - Third-Year Chinese

One-unit semester course. This course is designed for students who have completed at least two years of Chinese language (or equivalent). The course will focus on student acquisition of near-native fluency in spoken Chinese, competence in reading a variety of contemporary texts (with a dictionary), and employment of different registers and genres of Chinese in students’ writing. Prerequisite: Chinese 210 or acceptance through placement test. Conference.

Chin 325/Lit 325 - Songs to Lost Music: Ci-Poetry

One-unit semester course. This course investigates the rise and the development of ci-poetry, a genre related closely to music. Its formal features and their emotional qualities, major modes of expression, and different stages of its development from the ninth to the thirteenth century are the foci in the close reading of selected poems. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing. For Chinese credit, CHIN 212 or equivalent. Conference.

Chin 367/Lit 318 - Love in Late Imperial China

Alexei Ditter - T/Th 3:10-4:30 p.m.

One-unit semester course. This course will examine representations of love and lovers in the literary and historical discourses of the fourteenth through nineteenth centuries. Approaching “love” (qing 情) through key words, conceptions, ideals, and acts with which it was associated, we will explore a number of questions, including: What kinds of behaviors or speech were coded as “romantic?” Were representations of “love” consistent across different discursive contexts (fictional, dramatic, poetic, historical)? Were literary representations of love seen as promoting positive ideals of romance and marriage or encouraging socially deviant and dangerous behaviors? We will also explore the discursive boundaries of love, places where words and deeds shift from love to desire, lust, madness, and obsession. Within what contexts were otherwise romantic words and deeds suddenly viewed as transgressive or disturbing? How did different forms of discourse (medical, legal) identify pathologies of love and/or propose to treat them? All readings in translation. An additional hour session of guided readings in the original will be offered for students taking the course for Chinese credit. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing. For Chinese credit, CHIN 212 or equivalent. Conference.

Chin 390/Lit 321/Art 390- Realism and Its Discontents in Contemporary Chinese Visual Media

Jing Jiang and Michelle Wang - W 6:10–9:00 p.m.

One-unit semester course. With the opening up and economic reforms beginning in the late 1970s in China, a new aesthetic question confronted literature and the arts: what constitutes the real and what counts now as legitimate modes/means of its representation? While socialist realism was on the wane, realism continued to condition various forms of cultural production and took myriad guises-from an attempt at complete objectivity devoid of emotion to a complete dependence on subjectivity and affect for delivering a sense of the real; from drawing on the experiences of everyday life of individuals to the legendary feats of martial artists and utopian ideals of science fiction. This course grapples with these various interpretations of realism in modern and contemporary Chinese media, while reaching back in time to trace the precedents of these new forms that negotiate the blurry lines between truth and fiction, the objective and the subjective, the real and the fantastical. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing. For Chinese credit, CHIN 212 or equivalent. Conference.

Chin 412 - Selected Topics in Chinese Literature

Hyong Rhew - M/W/F 11:00-11:50 p.m.

One-unit semester course. Topics vary, selected from Chinese literature. Readings and instruction in Chinese. Prerequisite: third-year level of Chinese proficiency. Conference. May be repeated for credit.

Spring Courses

Chin 112 - First-Year Chinese

Two-unit yearlong course; one unit per semester. A beginner’s course in standard (Mandarin) modern spoken and written Chinese, aimed at building a solid foundation in all its aspects: pronunciation (especially the tones), syntax, and basic vocabulary. Attention is given to a balanced development of all the basic skills of the language: listening and reading comprehension, speaking, and writing. Pinyin is the romanization system used in this and all other Chinese language courses. Both the traditional and simplified characters are taught. Students are expected to read both and write one of the two versions. Lecture-conference.

Chin 212 - Second-Year Chinese

Two-unit yearlong course; one unit per semester. This course is designed to build the skills of students who have studied at least one year of Chinese (or equivalent) to achieve intermediate-level proficiency in the oral and written use of the language through speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Emphasis in the course will be placed on learning to recognize and reproduce the natural flow of the spoken language, expanding vocabulary, and learning to write short essays in Chinese. Prerequisite: Chinese 110 or acceptance through placement test. Lecture-conference.

Chin 316 - Classical Chinese

Hyong Rhew - M/W/F 11:00-11:50 a.m.

One-unit semester course. Intensive introduction to the grammar of classical Chinese through the study of selections from ancient literary, historical, and philosophical texts. Readings include the Analects, Mencius, Zhuangzi, Shiji, and Tang-Song prose essays. Conducted in Chinese. Prerequisite: Chinese 210 or equivalent. Conference.

Chin 334/Lit 311 - The Yijing: Text and Tradition of the Book of Changes

One-unit semester course. The Yijing, or Book of Changes, is a text of limitless possibilities. This course explores various strategies of reading the text and examines philosophical, religious, historical, and literary critical implications of the text and the tradition associated with it. The system and the language of the 64 hexagrams and various layers of attached verbalization are the focus of investigation. Readings are in English. Students who take the course for Chinese credit meet for additional tutoring to read parts of the text in the original. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing. For Chinese credit, CHIN 212 or equivalent. Conference.

Chin 374/Lit 319 - Reading Early Chinese Novels: The Four Masterworks

One-unit semester course. This course explores the development of the novel as an artistic literary form in late imperial China by introducing students to representative novels from the Ming dynasty (fourteenth through seventeenth century), particularly the “four masterworks” (四大奇書) including Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國志通俗演義), Outlaws of the Marsh (水滸傳), Journey to the West (西遊記), and Jin Ping Mei (金瓶梅). Through closely reading select chapters of these four novels, we will explore the relationship between the Ming masterworks and a number of other factors, ranging from history (the long tradition of historiography in China as well as changes in intellectual history during Ming), the rise of material culture, shifting societal norms, and the growing focus on the individual, to more literary concerns with authorship, genre, intertextuality, and reception history. Close textual analyses of the primary sources will be supplemented by critical and theoretical readings that will introduce us to current scholarly approaches to the study of early modern Chinese fiction and help us dialogue with specialists in the field with our own interests and interpretations. We will also examine adaptations of these monumental novels in a variety of other popular media to appreciate their long-lasting cultural influences across (and beyond?) East Asia. All readings are available in translation. Students taking the course for Chinese credit will meet for an additional hour of reading in the original language. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing. For Chinese credit, CHIN 212 or equivalent. Conference.