Recent News

Pinyin / Wade-Giles Pronunciation Guide

Welcome to China Institute’s online Chinese pronunciation guide!

This guide is designed to allow you to search Chinese syllables written in both pinyin and Wade-Giles spellings, the two most predominant systems of romanization for Chinese characters used in English language documents. Wade-Giles, so-called after the two developers, is an older system sometimes used in Western academic and popular publications. Pinyin, developed and implemented in the People’s Republic of China in the 1950′s, is today the more widely used system.

TO ACCESS THE GUIDE, PLEASE CLICK HERE

A Multidisciplinary Approach: Teaching Multiculturalism In China Workshop

While minority populations only constitute roughly 8% of the overall Chinese population, that is over one hundred million people in hard numbers—a total population of people who are classified as an ethnic minority in China almost equal to the entire population of Mexico (the 11th most populous country in the world). There are 55 officially recognized minority nationalities or ethnic minorities in the People’s Republic of China, and they challenge any notion of China as a homogeneous population. Sensitivity to this ethnic diversity helps students better appreciate China’s richly diverse cultural and linguistic landscape as well as reinforce its geographic diversity. This workshop is designed to help educators teach about China’s rich multicultural make-up from a Chinese language perspective as well as historical, geographic, and cultural perspectives. Special focus is given to the Naxi people of the Lijiang region of Yunnan province, one of China’s most famous areas for its ethnic diversity and a famous site for international and domestic tourism.

Presented in collaboration between the Teach China program, the Confucius Institute @ China Institute (CI@CI) and the Rubin Museum of Art, this workshop is part of a series designed to provide a platform for teachers to discuss multi-disciplinary approaches to integrating language and culture in the K-12 curriculum.  Participating China Institute and Rubin Museum staff will share more information about educational resources, including the upcoming Rubin Museum of Art exhibition, Quentin Roosevelt’s China.

Friday, February 4, 2011 ~ 6:00 — 7:30 PM
China Institute, 125 E 65th St, New York, NY 10065

This workshop is in collaboration with NYS Asian Languages Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center (ALBETAC).

Materials (click to download):

Ethnic Groups in China Classroom Presentation (pdf)

Ethnic Minorities in China lesson plan w/student handout (pdf)

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Calligraphy: Bridging Chinese Language and Culture

Please join us for a workshop on Calligraphy: Bridging Chinese Language and Culture, jointly presented by Confucius Institute at China Institute (CI@CI) and New York University’s Project for Developing Chinese Language Teachers (DCLT). This workshop will focus on how to effectively use calligraphy to teach Chinese language and culture. Professor Zhou Bin, an esteemed calligrapher and widely published scholar of Chinese calligraphy from East China Normal University (ECNU) will give an interactive lecture, demonstrating the many pedagogical techniques, followed by a Q & A session. His expertise and sensitivity to intercultural dynamics in the classroom will prove to be illuminating.

Friday, March 4, 2011 ~ 4:30-7:00 PM
China Institute Library (located on the 2nd floor), 125 E 65th St., New York, NY 10065

FREE

Dinner will be served.

Seating is LIMITED. Reservations are on a first-come, first served basis.

SOLD OUT
For waiting list, please contact Ho Young Hung at hhung@chinainstitute.org or call 212-744-8181 ext. 116.

This workshop is in collaboration with NYS Asian Languages Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center (ALBETAC).

This event is made possible through the generous support of the Hanban (officially known as the “Office of Chinese Language Council International”), The Freeman Foundation, and other public and private grantors.

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ABOUT CHINA INSTITUTE: Founded in 1926 by renowned educators John Dewey and Hu Shi, China Institute is the oldest bicultural organization in the United States focused on advancing a deeper understanding of China through programs in education, culture, business and art in the belief that cross-cultural understanding strengthens our global community.

ABOUT ECNU: ECNU is one of China’s premier universities, with a special focus on teachers’ education. With a population of over 40,000 students, including 3,000 students from over 40 countries worldwide, ECNU is known for producing leading scholars and scholarship on international educational theory and
practice in Chinese language teaching. In December 2008, ECNU was designated as one of China’s key research and training centers for Chinese language teachers.

Scholar’s Perspective: Teaching Chinese as a Foreign/Second Language

Since 2006, The Confucius Institute @ China Institute (CI@CI) in partnership with the prestigious East China Normal University (ECNU) has been leading the professional development in teaching Chinese as a second language in the U.S. This spring, three renowned professors from ECNU will visit CI@CI in New York for the first time, to present this symposium, Scholars’ Perspective: Teaching Chinese as a Foreign/Second Language.  All three professors are leading scholars in their respective fields and will be discussing various topics such as, theories and principles of Chinese phonetics and phonology, understanding Chinese characters from multiple perspectives, and contextualizing the use of Chinese languages. Symposium will be given in Mandarin Chinese.

Friday, April 30~ 1:30-5:30PM
China Institute ~125 E 65th St. New York, NY 10065

$10 member/$15 non-member

Refreshments will be served.

Seating is LIMITED.

Please click here to REGISTER. OR,
RSVP by April 26 to Ho Young Hung at hhung@chinainstitute.org or call 212-744-8181 ext. 116.

Please click here for the introduction of the symposium topics.

This workshop is in collaboration with NYS Asian Languages Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center (ALBETAC).

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ABOUT CHINA INSTITUTE:  Founded in 1926 by renowned educators John Dewey and Hu Shi, China Institute is the oldest bicultural organization in the United States focused on advancing a deeper understanding of China through programs in education, culture, business and art in the belief  that cross-cultural understanding strengthens our global community.

ABOUT ECNU:  ECNU is one of China’s premier universities, with a special focus on teachers’ education.  With a population of over 40,000 students, including 3,000 students from over 40 countries worldwide, ECNU is known for producing leading scholars and scholarship on international educational theory and practice in Chinese language teaching.  In December 2008, ECNU was designated as one of China’s key research and training centers for Chinese language teachers.

A Multi-disciplinary Approach: Using Modern Woodcuts and Folk Art to Teach About China

Woodcuts are an important visual medium that was part of a dynamic vernacular movement in modern China, which promoted widespread literacy and reached mass audiences. As part of a folk art tradition, woodcuts can be used as an educational resource for teaching about China. In this workshop, teachers from various disciplines will present on their experiences using woodcuts in their classrooms. The workshop will also feature a classroom activity on how to guide students in interpreting folk art.

Jointly presented by Teach China and the Confucius Institute at China Institute (CI@CI), this workshop is part of a series designed to provide a platform for teachers to discuss multi-disciplinary approaches to integrating language and culture in the K-12 curriculum.

5:45-6:15pm    Teaching Modern Woodcuts in Their cultural and Historical Contexts
Kevin Lawrence,  Associate Director, Teach China

6:15-6:40pm    A Chinese Language Approach to Teaching Modern Woodcuts
Weiwei Yu, The Pingry School

6:40-6:50pm    Break

6:50-7:50pm    Modern Chinese Woodcuts
Renee Covalucci, University of Massachusetts Boston China Program Center

7:50-8:30pm    Group Activity: Reading Folk Art Across the Disciplines and Grades
Renee Covalucci, University of Massachusetts Boston China Program Center

Resources participants may be interested in:

Chinese Avant Garde
History of Modern Chinese Woodblock Print
Xu Bing’s Square Word Calligraphy

Chinese language lesson plan using woodcuts resources

Chinese characters sample

Art of the Masses Handout

Please join our on-line China360 forum discussion by clicking HERE – you can find out about other resources and share ideas about how to teach about modern Chinese woodcuts and folk art across the disciplines.

Please click HERE to sign up for the China Institute monthly e-newsletter.

This workshop is in collaboration with NYS Asian Languages Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center (ALBETAC).

This event is made possible through the generous support of the Hanban (officially known as the “Office of Chinese Language Council International”), The Freeman Foundation, and other public and private grantors.