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Registration for the winter term was originally scheduled for late October, but the date is now on hold, as a new system on Inspira is being tested. Once installed, people can register themselves online, check their grades, among others, all on their own. An announcement will be sent once the system is implemented.

Photo Exhibition

A photo exhibition featuring our programme's activities of the last few years has been mounted outside of DC2-207. Please stop by to take a look. If you don't have time to do so, you can view the photos online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/48937028@N00/sets/72157631637711306/.

Many people liked a photo exhibition we put on previously (Allure of China). Although that set has been dismounted, you can still view the photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/48937028@N00/sets/72157625611439083/. Feel free to make prints.

Useful Resources
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1. MIT's Open Courses

Did you know that the person behind MIT OpenCourseWare project is Professor Dick Yue? His vision is that in the future free online courses may be taken for credit and employers will recognize such education! Currently, MIT's OCW offers over 2000 online courses. More than 125 million people have benefited from this incredible project. The open courses include the a number of Chinese classes at http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/foreign-languages-and-literatures.

2. The Dao De Jing For Students Of Chinese

Apple iBookstore

This simplified character edition of the Dao De Jing aims to make the 2500-year-old original text of Taoism accessible to modern students of Chinese. Click on any one of the 5000 characters in the text and a glossary entry pops up, with an English definition and the pinyin spelling of the character. Next to each of the 81 chapters is a pinyin version and grammar notes, and a critical introduction precedes the text.

3. Learning Chinese Pinyin Online

Beginning students of Chinese can learn about the pinyin system and practice all the sound combinations at http://kid.chinese.cn/pinyin/index.html.

4. Zhongwen Learner

At this UK-based website: http://www.zhongwenlearner.com/, you can find Chinese-English, Chinese-French and Chinese-German dictionaries. You can also browse for Lessons, watch live Chinese TV use the Forums (NEW) or use one of the many tools for learning Chinese, Input Methods, Practice Sheet Generator and more.

5. Video Lessons on Chinese

Mike Hainzinger of Joliet Junior College in Illinois teaches Chinese through a series of 10-minute video lessons in a unique way. You can check out the lessons at www.chinesewithmike.com . He welcomes feedback, which can be sent to mhainzin@jjc.edu.

Community Events
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1. Bound Unbound:Lin Tianmiao

Exhibition, 7 September, 2012 - 27 January, 2013

One of Lin Tianmiao’s clearest recollections of her childhood in China was helping her mother sew clothes for the family. When she returned to China after spending eight years living in New York, she was inspired by this memory to create a technique she calls thread winding, where she winds silk or cotton thread around an object until it is completely covered and ultimately transformed. She used this in one of her first major works called The Proliferation of Thread Winding in 1995, which began her career as an artist and is included in the exhibition. Her use of the technique continues today and can be seen in such recent works as All the Same.

Location: Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10021

Phone:212-288-6400

See details here.

2. New "China": Porcelain Art from Jingdezhen,1910-2012

Exhibition, Fri, 21 September - Sun, 9 December, 2013

Jingdezhen, situated in the northeastern region of Jiangxi province, is known as the “Porcelain Capital,” and has served as the major source of China trade ceramics for the world for over 1,000 years. Jingdezhen cultivated an enormous industry of specialized and accomplished clay fabricators, glaze painters and kiln firers due to an abundance of raw materials, centuries of clay development and ravenous global demand. Since the Song dynasty, merchants have come from the world over to commission beautiful ceramic ware from the skilled artisans in Jingdezhen. New “China” will allow visitors to explore the authoritative influence of Jingdezhen on ceramic arts during the last 100 years.

Location: China Institute, 125 East 65th Street, New York, NY 10065

Phone:212-744-8181

See details here.

3. Author's Talk & Book Signing: Three Tough Chinamen

Author Scott D. Seligman is a writer, historian, genealogist, retired corporate executive, and career “China hand.”

Tuesday, October 16 ~ 6:30 – 8 PM
$10 member / $15 non-member

Location: China Institute, 125 East 65th Street, New York, NY 10065

Phone:212-744-8181

For more information click here.

4. Public Intellectuals in China: A Conversation with Zha Jianying

Zha Jianying was born in Beijing in 1959 to a family of intellectuals (her father was a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences). In 1978, she joined the first class of students at the newly reopened Peking University (now Beijing University). She holds master’s degrees in English and comparative literature, respectively from University of South Carolina and Columbia. Zha went back to China in 1987 and worked briefly for the New York Times Beijing office before returning to the States in 1989. From 1990 to 1995, she lived in Chicago. It was during this period that she began traveling between China and the U.S. to research her book.

Location: China Institute, 125 East 65th Street, New York, NY 10065

*Date and time for event, to be announced.

For more information click here.

5. Chinese Language Rendezvous

Friday, October 26, 2012 6:30 – 9:00 PM

Join fellow China Institute members and language students for our first Chinese Language Rendezvous. Practice your Mandarin language skills by playing Chinese Jeopardy and Pictionary while enjoying wine and snacks.

Attendees will be placed in groups; please indicate your language skills (beginner, intermediate, advance) in the comment section when registering.

To purchase tickets, click http://www.chinainstitute.org/support-us/membership/membership-events/ .

6. Hong Kong Sinfonietta

Sunday, October 7, 2012 5:00 PM

Music Director Yip Wing-sie and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, one of Hong Kong's flagship professional orchestras, will make its American debut at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall on Sunday, October 7, 2012. This performance marks the group's first US engagement as well as the US premiere of Chan Hing-yan's 'Twas the Thawing Wind, a concerto for sheng and orchestra, performed by Sheng player Loo Sze-Wang. The program also includes Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto, with soloist Tianwa Yang, as well as his Classical Symphony and the suite from Stravinsky's Pulcinella.

Tickets start at $29.

For more information click here.

Articles of Interest
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1. Why Brokers Study Chinese

By Alexei Barrionuevo

New York Times ,6 September, 2012

With a torrent of money flowing into the United States from China, some savvy real estate brokers are trying to jump in farther upstream to better position themselves to win new clients.

When the New York market dried up at the end of 2008, Sotheby’s International Realty turned its focus to Asia. The company dispatched one of its prominent brokers, Nikki Field, to travel to Asia to develop relationships with potential clients. She and her real estate partner, Kevin Brown, began making about four trips a year there, with a growing focus on mainland China.