More People Interested in Chinese

Guy S. Alitto simply dived into the vast pool of classical Chinese1classical Chinese文言文。when he first tried to learn the language as an adult in the 1960s, but quickly found out that the “sink or swim” approach just doesn’t work with the language.

[2] Even after two years of huffing and puffing up the steep slopes of classical texts such as the Analects of Confucius and Mencius, then a graduate student majoring in Chinese history at the University of Chicago, couldn’t use the language to order food at Chinese restaurants, and couldn’t even say ni hao, or hello, accurately.

[3] “We were supposed to learn modern Chinese first and then wen yan wen(classical Chinese), but nobody really knows how it should work,” said Alitto in fluent Mandarin. He is now professor of history at the University of Chicago. “At that time, people were not interested in less-developed countries like China. Chinese was an unpopular subject; few people studied it and even fewer knew how to teach it.”

20世紀60年代，艾愷初涉浩瀚無邊的文言文，那是成年的他第一次嘗試學習漢語，但他很快發現，全憑自己闖的方法在學這門語言時行不通。

[2]《論語》《孟子》等文言書籍猶如陡坡，即使艾愷花費了兩年時光艱難攀爬，之后又在芝加哥大學攻讀中國歷史專業研究生，艾愷仍無法用漢語在中國餐館點餐，甚至不能準確地說出“你好”。

[3]如今擔任芝加哥大學歷史學教授的艾愷用一口流利的普通話說道：“應該先學現代漢語，然后再學文言文，但是沒有人知道該如何操作。當時，人們對中國這樣的欠發達國家不感興趣。漢語是冷門，沒有多少人研究，更沒有幾個人知道如何教漢語。”

[4] Back in the 1960s, hardly any universities in the United States taught courses about China, the exceptions being a couple of elite Ivy League schools. But even in those establishments, knowledge was limited. Some professors could breeze through oracle bones2oracle bones甲骨文。, a form of Chinese script consisting of characters carved into the shoulder bones of oxen or turtle shells, dating from the Shang Dynasty (circa 16th century–11th century BC), but were unable to construct a complete sentence in modern Chinese, he added.

[5] Alitto acquired his Chinese name from his graduate adviser: Ai Kai,which means “optimistic and easily contented”. The name was apt: “You had to be very optimistic to be a sinologist at that time,” he admitted.

[6] But now, almost every university in the US has courses in Chinese. Alitto’s class at the University of Chicago, Introduction to Chinese Civilization, saw undergraduate numbers grow to 127 last year from 70 to 80 just a few years ago.

[7] “More students have become interested in China year-on-year,” he said. “If you put the number of students studying Chinese and China’s GDP on a graph, they match perfectly.”

[4]艾愷補充道，20世紀60年代，美國幾乎沒有大學講授漢語課，除了幾所常春藤盟校。然而，這些盟校所教的漢語知識也是有限的。盡管有些教授研究過甲骨文——一種刻在牛骨或龜殼上的中國文字，其歷史可追溯至商代（約公元前16世紀至公元前11世紀）——但卻不能造出一個完整的現代漢語句子。

[5]艾愷的中文名是研究生導師給取的，意為“樂天知命”。艾愷承認這個名字很貼切：“那個時候，要做漢學家必須十分樂觀才行?！?/p>

[6]不過，現在美國幾乎每所大學都有漢語課。艾愷在芝加哥大學開設了課程“中國文明概論”，選課的本科生從幾年前的70至80人增長到去年的127人。

[7]艾愷說：“與去年同期相比，更多學生對中國感興趣了。如果把學習漢語的學生人數和中國國內生產總值一道標在圖表上，會發現這兩者的發展趨勢完全吻合?！?/p>

[8] “Just as the song says, ‘The whole world is learning Chinese’,” he said, quoting the band S.H.E. “China’s booming economy has attracted the world’s attention and has also produced a marvelous growth in Chinese studies in the academic field3academic field學術界。.”

[9] In the 1940s, only 26 people studied Chinese language and culture at universities in the United Kingdom. By the 1990s, there were 160 China specialists working in the UK, 60 percent of them conducting research into modern China,according to a report from the National Research Center of Overseas Sinology in Beijing.

[10] The report noted that in 1963 there were 33 people in the US with a doctorate in Chinese studies. However,by 1993, there were more than 10,000 China specialists working for the government or universities, or in business and the media.

[11] In the 19th century there were no academic bodies that specialized in4specialize in專攻。Chinese studies in the US, but by 2012, the number had reached 250. Currently, Harvard University alone boasts more than 10 organizations related to Chinese studies.

[12] “But more important, nonspecialists have also developed their knowledge about China and are interested in China. I mean businessmen,school teachers and publishers,” said Ross Terrill, a China specialist and research associate at Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.“Knowledge about China has moved away from pure sinologists. It has jumped out of the box, which is excellent, because understanding China involves various disciplines.”

[8]他引述中國臺灣女子流行演唱組合S.H.E的歌曲說道：“正如那首歌里唱的，‘全世界都在學中國話’。中國經濟的蓬勃發展吸引了全世界的目光，同時也推動了學術界漢學的極大發展?！?/p>

[9] 20世紀40年代，英國大學里僅有26人研究中國語言和文化。據北京的中國海外漢學研究中心的報告，到20世紀90年代，有160位中國問題專家在英國工作，其中60%專門研究現代中國。

[10]該報告指出，1963年，美國獲漢學博士學位的只有33人。然而，到1993年，已有1萬多名中國問題專家供職于政府、大學或企業和媒體。

[11] 19世紀，美國根本沒有專門研究漢學的學術機構，但到2012年，這樣的機構已達250家。目前，僅哈佛大學就擁有10多個漢學相關機構。

[12]哈佛大學費正清中國研究中心的中國問題專家、助理研究員羅斯·特里爾說：“更重要的是，非專業人士也在學習中國知識和關注中國。我指的是商人、教師和出版商。也就是說，研究中國不再只是漢學家的‘專利’。因為研究中國涉及各種學問，它已經跳出專業的框框，這種現象是很好的?！?/p>

[13] Terrill said there are many students from China on Harvard’s campuses, and the Confucius Institutes have promoted China for a long time. When US nationals travel to South America or Africa, they notice the scale of Chinese projects. “China is part of the world now, not just a place for sinologists to study. You can see for yourself,” he said.

[14] Terrill said there are many areas available to people who want to be China specialists. “For instance, we need to read more deeply about China.If you want to write a doctoral thesis on the life of Chiang Kai-shek, we might need it, because the picture hasn’t been totally filled in,” he said.

[15] He said there are fields that didn’t exist 30 years ago, such as Chinese law. “Now China is building a legal system. People are now able to sue each other. But I didn’t even feel that when I was a student. However, foreign sinologists should be purely objective.”he said. “We only have the authority to tell the facts as we find them.”

[13]特里爾表示，現在有很多中國學生來哈佛就讀，而孔子學院長期以來一直也在宣傳中國形象。美國公民前往南美或非洲時，會注意到中國在當地開展的大批工程項目?！爸袊F在不僅僅是漢學研究的對象，更是世界不可或缺的組成部分。這是有目共睹的。”

[14]特里爾說，有許多領域需要中國問題專家?！芭e例來說，我們需要更加深入地解讀中國。比如，想寫一篇關于蔣介石一生的博士論文，我們可能需要深入閱讀，因為關于他的研究還不夠充分。”

[15]他說，有些領域，如中國法的研究，30年前還不存在?！艾F在中國正在加強法制建設，人們相互間可以提起訴訟。可是在我的學生時代，對于中國的法律情況，我一點兒也不了解。不過，外國漢學家應該是純粹客觀的。我們只有發現了事實，才有權力公布事實?！?/p>

[16] In the 1980s, Terrill published a biography of Mao Zedong, the Chinese translation of which has sold more than 1.8 million copies in China. “I think I am objective in my book on Mao,” he said. “But the disadvantage was that I didn’t feel fully immersed like those people who lived during that era. Chinese readers didn’t know a lot about Mao’s personal life until the publication

of my book.”

[16] 20世紀80年代，特里爾出版了一本毛澤東傳記，其中文版在中國的銷量超過了180萬冊。他說：“我覺得我在書里對毛澤東的描述是客觀的。但缺陷是，我沒有生活在那個時代的那些人的深刻感受和體驗。在看到我這本書之前，中國讀者對毛澤東個人生活的

了解并不多。”