East and Southeast Asian Studies century A.D. and to have produced its first major creative works, the plays of the Yuan period, in the 13th century. The terms 'modern' and 'medieval' are, therefore, used in a rather special sense dictated by the nature and structure of the written material. Classical Chinese continued to be written throughout these periods and is still being written today.
As a spoken language, Standard Chinese, or, as it is often called, Мап- darin, or Киоуй or Putunghua, is now spoken and understood through- out China and in most of the overseas Chinese communities in the various countries of South-East Asia. It is, therefore, a satisfactory medium of communication with the majority of the 750,000,000 of Australia's Chinese neighbours, rather more than one-fifth of the world's total population. Standard Chinese is based on the Peking dialect and the pronunciation taught will be that of Peking.
In the first year the main emphasis of the course Is on spoken and simple written Chinese. From the second year the texts studied are virtually all from Chinese written for Chinese rather than from specially composed text books. An hour a week of classical Chinese is also introduced at this stage, but from a specially written text book.
Medieval Chinese with readings from the Shuei-hu Chuan, the Hung-lou Meng and from Yüan drama is taken by pure honours students as from the second year. But the main emphasis of the course is on modern standard Chinese and on modern literature from the nineteen-twenties to the present day.
The rapid emergence in the latter half of this century of China as a great world power has added considerable urgency to Western studies of Chinese and of Chinese civilization. From their early beginnings as a peripheral and esoteric pastime, these studies have now developed into an increasingly normal and central pursuit at most of the major univer- sities In the West. Australia's geographical position makes such a devel- opment particularly desirable and important.
As a result of this development, opportunities now exist for careers in the academic world as well as in government and business for graduates in this field. A knowledge of Chinese either of major or sub- major standard coupled with suitable qualifications in such fields as History, Political Science or Economics is particularly useful in this respect.
ORDINARY DEGREE
(Details for the honours degree are set out at the end of this section.)
Phonetically Chinese introduces one or two unusual sounds, but the main point of interest lies in the study of the four tones. Just as we distinguish between 'bit' and 'but' and 'bit' and 'beat', so the Chinese distinguish between 'ta spoken with even, high-rising, low-rising or falling pitch.
At once the most interesting and the most difficult part of the course is the study of 'characters' or syllable graphs'. Most syllables in Chinese can be shown to have some meaning, and syllables with different meanings (not necessarily with different sounds) are each written with a different character or 'syllable graph'. Students tend to master about five hundred of these in their first year. Each lesson in the Reader intro- duces thirty new characters. Tuition in writing with a brush is provided, and some students become quite expert at handling a brush, although most Chinese nowadays are content to write with a pen. The five hundred characters occur in compounds and give one a total vocabulary of up to 1,000 words. These are supplemented by words learnt only in their romanized form.
The tutorial provides conversation and dictation and some simple struc- tural exercises. The language laboratory tapes are based on the Reader.
BOOKS
(a) Prescribed texts:
Simon H F & king R C I A First Reader in Standard Chinese (supplied in mimeographed form by the department)
(b) Prescribed dictionary:
Simon W Beginners' Chinese Dictionary, Lund Humphries or
Dictionary of Spoken Chinese, The Institute of Far Eastern Languages, Yale University, Yale University Press 1965
(c) Recommended for reference:
Wang Fang-Yu The Lady in the Painting, Far Eastern Publications, Yale University 1957
Lee Pao-Ch'en Read About China, The Institute of Far Eastern Lan- guages, Yale University, 1957
Simon W Structure Drill in Chinese, Lund Humphries
The department will issue a supplementary reading list as well as additional teaching material in the farm of mimeographed sheets.
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS
A test will be set in the first week of second and third term. One of the objects of the tests is to prepare students for the annual examination and to show them where they stand in relation to the previous term's work. Corrected test papers will be returned to students after the test.
The results of the tests will be taken into account in the final exami- nation.
EXAMINATION
One 3-hour paper of translation from and into Chinese (unseen). An oral examination. The results of the term tests will be taken into account.
156-102 CHINESE 1A (half subject) A course of two lectures per week.
One of the weekly lectures will take the form of exercises, translations 88
East and Southeast Asian Studies and dictations based on the Reader in Standard Chinese (cf. Chinese 1) and on other elementary texts. The other lecture will offer a survey of the syntactical structure of Standard Chinese together with an introduc- tion to structural grammar.
This course should be taken in conjunction with Chinese 1 (156-101).
EXAMINATION AND WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS
There will be no formal examination paper at the end of the year.
The examination will be based on the weekly exercises and on three short tests to be set in the first week of second and third terms and in the last week of third term.
156-201 CHINESE 2 (PASS)
A course of four hours per week consisting of two lectures and two tutorials. Students are strongly advised to spend at least one hour each week in the language laboratory or to work on the cassette tapes which are available on loan.
It will be seen from the introduction to Chinese courses that this course is only a part (about two-thirds) of the former second year course in Chinese which it replaces. Students would, therefore, be well advised to enrol also for the half course Chinese 2A (156-202). This is particu- lar1y important, since that course also offers an introduction to classical Chinese and a survey of Chinese literature in addition to the study of two further modern texts.
One of the two lectures in Chinese 2 is on the prescribed texts, which were written in the first half of this century; the other is on translation from Chinese and on Chinese grammar and poetry. One of the two tutorials is on translation into Chinese, the other comprises conversation and other oral exercises such as dictation.
Before being allowed to proceed to Chinese 2, students must have obtained a pass in Chinese 1 (or exemption from it) and in East Asian Studies 1 or the first half of it. Under certain circumstances, permission may be granted by the chairman of the department to proceed to Chinese 2 and East Asian Studies simultaneously or to substitute History 2Jt or 3J or an approved part of Politics 2 or 3 (166-005) for East Asian Studies 1. Candidates who are exempt from Chinese 1 must satisfy the chairman of the department that they have a satisfactory command of Standard Chinese.
Whilst the study of Chinese in the first year is based on texts specially written for foreign students, the texts studied in Chinese 2 were written for Chinese readers. The transition from 'textbook Chinese' is not easy, and the department offers a special vacation course in December and February to bridge the gap.
BOOKS
(a) Prescribed texts:
'Selected stories and essays from the works of Ping 'sin and Hu Shih.
(Copies of these texts may be obtained from the department.) (b) Prescribed dictionaries:
• Hornby A S & Wu H C The Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Oxford University Press Hong kong
t Under consideration at the time of going to press.
89
or
• Tsung-he Ying-hua Hua-ying Ta Tź u-tien, any ed
•Liang Shih-ch'iu A New Practical Chinese-English Dictionary, The Far East Book Co Taipei
or
• Lin Yutang's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 1972
or
Mathews R H Chinese-English Dictionary, any ed (c) Recommended for reference:
Shih Nai-an (Buck Pearl tr) All Men are Brothers, Grove Press NY Ts'аo Hsüeh-ch'in (Wang Chi-chef tr) Dream of the Red Chamber,
Twayne Publications NY or
Ts'ao Hsüeh-ch'in (Hawkes D tr) The Record of the Stone, Penguin 1974
Luo Kuan-chung (Brewitt-Taylor C H tr) Romance of the Three King- doms, Tuttle Rutland 1959
Liu T'ieh-yйn (Shadick H tr) The Travels of Leo Ts'an, Cornell UP 1952 WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS
One translation from Chinese and one translation into Chinese will be set each week. Two short essays in Chinese on a topic of the student's choice will be required, one in second term and one in third term.
Each essay should be approximately 750 characters in length.
A test will be set in the first week of second and third terms. One of the objects of the tests is to prepare students for the annual examination and to show them where they stand in relation to the previous term's work. Corrected test papers will be returned to the students after the test. Written assignments will be taken into consideration in the examination.
EXAMINATION
One 3-hour paper on translation from and into Chinese (unseen), and on questions on the prescribed texts. An oral examination. The results of the weekly assignments, the two essays and the two term tests will be taken into consideration.
156-202 CHINESE 2A (half subject)
A course of two lectures per week throughout the year.
In one of the lectures students will study two essays or stories from the works of Pa Chin and Lu Hsün, the other will offer an introduction to Chinese literature in first term and an introduction to classical Chinese in the remainder of the year.
BOOKS
(a) Prescribed texts:
•Selected stories and essays from the works of Pa Chin and Lu Hsün (copies of these texts may be obtained from the department).
•Shadick H & Ch'iao C A First Course in Literary Chinese, vols I and II, Cornell University Press Ithaca 1968
90
East and Southeast Asian Studies Shih Nai-an (Buck Pearl tr) All Men are Brothers, Grove Press NY Ts'аo Hsüeh-ch'in (Wang Chi-chef tr) Dream of the Red Chamber,
Twayne Publications NY or
Ts'ao Hsüeh-ch'in (Hawkes D tr) The Record of the Stone, Penguin 1974
•Liu Wu-chi Introduction to Chinese Literature, Indiana UP 1966 (b) Prescribed dictionaries:
As for Chinese 2 (156-201) (c) Recommended for reference:
Elsie C T The Classical Chinese Novel, Columbia UP 1968
Lo Kuan-Chung Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Brewitt-Taylor C H tr), Tuttle Rutland 1959
Liu T'leh-Yün The Travels of Leo Ts'an (Shadick H tr), Cornell UP 1952
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS
There will be a test in the first week of second and third term. The results will be taken into account in the examination.
EXAMINATION
One 3-hour paper on the prescribed texts and on classical Chinese together with a question on a general topic in Chinese literature.
156-301 CHINESE 3 (PASS)
A course of five hours per week consisting of three lectures sid two tutorials. Students are strongly advised to spend at least one hour each week in the language laboratory or to work on the cassette tapes that are available an loan.
It will be seen from the Introduction to Courses in Chinese that this course is only a part (five-sevenths) of the former third year subject Chinese 3. Students are therefore advised to enrol also for Chinese 3A which will supplement the reading from modern texts and also provide a weekly lecture on classical Chinese and on Chinese bibIio- graphy. Chinese 3A may be combined with a half course in History (3"t or Political Science (Chinese Politics and Society [166-005]) or Modern and Medieval Chinese 38 (156-362) to provide a full third year Arts course in the form of a 'super-major' in Chinese.
Of the three lectures, one Is on prescribed texts from modern Chinese (Mao Tse-tung's speech to the Art and Literature Forum in Yenen in 1942, together with a short study by Lu ‚sun), one is on newspaper Chinese, and the third is on translation from Chinese and on Chinese poetry (the tz'u of the Sung dynasty). One of the two tutorials is on translation into Chinese and on essay writing, the other is on conver- sation and other forms of advanced oral practice.
ВOOKS
(a) Prescribed texts:
• Mao Tse-tung Tsal Yen-an Wen-yl Tso-t'en-huei-shang-te Chiang-hua
• Lu Hsйn, one of his short stories
(copies of these texts may be obtained from the department) t Under consideration at the time of going to prose.
91
(b) Prescribed dictionaries:
•Ногпьу A S & Wu H C The Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Oxford University Press Hong Kong
or
• Tsung-he Ving-hue Hua-ying Ta Tz'u-tien, any ed or
•Liang Shih-ch'iu A New Practical English-Chinese Dictionary, The Far East Book Co Ltd Taipei 1963
•Liang Shih-ch'iu A New Practical Chinese-English Dictionary, The Far East Book Company Taipei
or
•Lin Yutang ś Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 1972
or
• Mathews R H Chinese-English Dictionary, any ed (c) Recommended for reference:
Teng S Y & Biggerstaff K An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Chi- nese Reference Works, Harvard 1950
Tz'u-hai, Chung-hua Book Company WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS
One translation from Chinese and one translation into Chinese will be set each week. Two short essays in Chinese on a topic of the student's choice will be required, one at the beginning of second term and one at the beginning of third term. Each essay should be approximately 1,000 characters in length.
A test will be set in the first week of second and third terms. One of the objects of the tests is to prepare students for the annual examination and to show them where they stand in relation to the previous term's work. Corrected test papers will be returned to the students after the test. The results of the tests and of the written assignments will be taken into consideration in the examination.
EXAMINATION
Two 3-hour papers. The first will consist of translation from modern and newspaper Chinese (unseen), the second of translation into Chinese (unseen), a short essay in Chinese and a question on the prescribed texts. There will also be an oral examination.
The results of the weekly assignments, the two term tests, and the two essays will be taken into consideration.