Chinese Dramas Prosper in the U.S.

Susan is sure that an increasing number of U.S. students will learn Chinese dramas. “This is not only because the language is popular in America,” she explained. In addition, the U.S. government has also played a role. The National Security Language Initiative signed by former U.S. President George Bush in 2006 listed a number of recommended languages to boost national development, including Chinese. “This is a good thing, making people aware that it is time for us to learn China’s culture and language.” Susan knows many Chinese teachers, and many schools contact her to carry out Chinese-language programs. Some teachers are looking for teaching tools for the Chinese language.

One local senior high school opened an extracurricular program. In this project, students learn Chinese as well as erhu, a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, and Kunqu Opera. Although some of these children don’t even know much about Western music, they can read the scores and sing arias from Kunqu Opera. “What we need to do is to provide teachers with more Chinese language teaching aids,” Susan said.

CHEN QIANQIAN is a PhD candidate at UCLA.