Qing Wendy

How do you reopen a University? Pavilion  on my way to teach T h at is the question that many have been asking since quarantine began.  In one article , an administrator observes:  “ Our colleges and universities are in many ways like small cities… [only] more compacted with much higher density of people… When you think about a public health threat, or in this case the COVID-19 virus, it really is very complex.” (Sarah Van Orman, Associate Vice-Provost, Insider HigherEd ).   Despite these complexities, t he P resident of Brown University called the reopening of Schools and Universities the highest national priority:   “ Institutions should develop public health plans now that build on three basic elements of controlling the spread of infection: test, trace and se parate. ”(Christine Paxton, New York Times .   Well, that sounds simple!  Just test, trace and separate! Of course, it is more complicated than that.  The on...

How would you like to be able to communicate with over a billion new people, learn about one of the oldest continuous cultures in the world and make yourself and others smile?   All you need is 30 minutes a day to make this come true!   What am I talking about, you ask?   Learning Mandarin!   Sure, you have heard that Mandarin is one of the most difficult languages to learn.   I won’t lie to you, it is. But I want to convince you that with tiny steps, patience, an open mind and willingness to be wrong, you too can learn something that will pay itself back many times over in terms of personal satisfaction. Why would you want to learn Mandarin in the first place?   Here are the key reasons: make new friends, understand a country whose future is interdependent with the United States and perhaps most importantly, have fun learning more about Chinese culture.   Who doesn’t need more fun in life? If you learn some Mandarin, I guarantee you ...

The Shaw Foreign Language and Literature Classrooms How would you introduce American Literature to smart and talented Chinese students?    They all have read certain standard works— The Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin’s 13 Virtues (This is very “Confucius,” so always a big hit).   They read excerpts of Hemingway's Farewell to Arms   because the language is easy, and always Great Gatsby , to illustrate the excesses of Capitalism. None of these really seem to me to illustrate contemporary America, as my US students would recognize it.    For the fall term of my American Literature course, I focused on five historical time periods in the US: The Puritans, The Revolution, Transcendentalism, Naturalism, Modernism and Contemporary Literature.   This term, I decided to change course, and make the class more creative.   I divided the class into four categories—Literature about the Self, Landscape,  Family, and Societ...