MCLC: Chinatown on campus (1)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: nicholas kaldis (nkaldis at gmail.com)
Subject: Chinatown on campus (1)
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A note in response to The Ministry of Tofu's photo essay on Chinese
students at Ohio University, from a 1984 alumnus who was raised in Athens,
OH and called it home for 40+years:

The Ohio University campus is one of the oldest and most beautiful in the
midwest, and an affordable public college that has enthusiastically
recruited international students for many decades. In the early 1980s, OU
boasted one of the most diverse international student populations in the
country. It had sister universities and exchange programs with many
international institutions, including Feng Chia University in Taichung,
Taiwan. There have always been significant groups of international
students on campus studying for TOEFL and the English Proficiency Exams,
and OU has long been a well-known center for the training and
certification of ESL teachers. I imagine that the Ministry of Tofu's dire
outlook for the prospects of students from the PRC reflects a short-term
problem at OU, related to a sudden, unprecedented increase in enrollment
of students from China, and resulting pressures on the ESL faculty who
train and test students for the English Proficiency Exams.

Ohio University continues to lag behind in Chinese language and culture
course offerings: In the 80s there was only a handful of classes in
Chinese (and Japanese) literature in translation in the English
Department, taught by the popular and engaging Dr. Julia Lin, (University
of Washington PhD in Chinese Literature). Since she retired over 10 years
ago, her position in the English Department has not been replaced, and the
small, undersupported Chinese language curriculum has been allowed to
atrophy. There is currently growing demand on the OU campus for more
courses in Chinese language and culture, and the Southeast Asian Studies
program is well established. OU also has well-known programs in Fine Arts
and Film. Many list members in Chinese film studies are familiar with the
works of retired OU School of Film Professor George S. Semsel.

There are certainly a host of additional details that would go further in
qualifying the Ministry of Tofu's rather superficial profile of Chinese
students at Ohio University.

Nick