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Chinese Program

Asian Studies Program Award Recipients' Profiles

Please click on a name to view that specific winner: Karen Mittler / Abigail King / Jui-Yen Chiang
/ Annie Sullivan-Chin

Karen Mittler

Class of 2008,
Co-Winner of
Indira V. Peterson Award
in South Asian Studies

My journey in Asian Studies began with my study of the Hindi language. Before coming to Mount Holyoke College I knew I wanted to pursue this love. During the summers of 2005 and 2006 I traveled to the University of Wisconsin – Madison, home of the South Asian Summer Language Institute. I completed two semesters of Hindi language each time compressed into eight weeks.

To further intensify this passion I also took two self-instructional courses at Mount Holyoke College, offered through the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. This supplementary material ensured that what I learned would not be lost in between summer sessions.

In January 2007, I went to India through the Tibetan Studies in India Program offered through Smith College, for a January Term opportunity. We stayed in a town outside of the city of Varanasi and attended classes of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, history and culture.

Between my studies at Mount Holyoke College and the language program at the South Asian Summer Language Institute, I was well prepared to venture to India. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the history, culture and language come alive and would recommend any of the above-mentioned programs.

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Abigail King

Class of 2008, Winner of Irene He Yuan Chinese-American
Friendship Award

China and America as Yin and Yang

Growing up I felt caught between a clash of cultures: a battle of East versus West. The American culture would ask me why I took my shoes off when I went home, or why I celebrated New Year’s in the middle of February instead of January. The Chinese culture would start speaking to me in Chinese, and then when I didn’t respond, asked me why I didn’t speak Chinese. It seemed that there was no common ground between the two. I came to Mount Holyoke to study Chinese in the hopes of connecting more with my heritage. Little did I know that connecting with my Chinese heritage would also help me find a balance between the clash of cultures.

During my Mount Holyoke career I was presented with two opportunities to travel to China: once as a student of Chinese, and once as a teacher of English. As a student I was given a glimpse of the vast and diverse culture that China had to offer. From Peking Opera to Jay Chou; from the Great Wall, to bustling Tian’an Men Square, I was immersed into the fast-paced Beijing lifestyle for two months. For once, I felt like I belonged somewhere. However, it wasn’t until I went to Fuzhou to teach English where I realized that the Chinese and American aspect did not have to compete with each other, but were instead two parts of one whole. I thought teaching English would only emphasize the American aspect of myself and further alienate the Chinese aspect, however I was wrong. Unlike Beijing where I only spoke in Chinese, I spoke both Chinese and English with my students in Fuzhou. If my students did not know how to say something in English, they could explain it to me in Chinese and vice versa; if I did not know how to explain something in Chinese I could explain it in English. Even though we were from two different countries, we were still able to understand each other. One of my students said to me, “Even though our nationalities are different, it’s like we have the same blood.”

After my trip to Beijing, I became the events coordinator of the Chinese Cultural Association at Mount Holyoke. Every year CCA puts on a show of student performances to demonstrate Chinese culture as well as celebrate the coming of the New Year. After coming back from China for the second time, I wanted to create a China Night that emphasized the many aspects of Chinese culture; that China wasn’t limited to fortune cookies and chopsticks in the hair. I wanted to produce a show that not only displayed the Chinese culture in China, but also the Chinese culture in America. I wanted to put on a show that emphasized; no matter where one grew up in, whether it be in China or in America, one will still be able to find a common ground between the two diverse cultures.

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Jui-Yen Chiang

Class of 2008, winner of Carl G. Seasword Award
in Japanese

When I came to Mount Holyoke as a first-year in the fall of 2004, I had my heart set on studying International Relations and becoming a diplomat. I was determined to learn Greek and continue my eight years of Spanish: I had visions of either frolicking on the sandy beaches of Greece or feasting on paella in Madrid during my Junior year abroad.

I still laugh a little in wonder at how differently my academic career at Mount Holyoke has actually turned out, and how deeply and passionately devoted I have ended up to the study of East Asia.

After taking a first-year seminar on Chinese intellectuals and a course on ancient Chinese civilization, both taught by my advisor, Professor Lipman, I decided I simply had to go to China to experience this place myself. That summer, from May to July of 2005, a friend and I spent five weeks as English-teacher interns at the Yucai School in Beijing, soaking in its history and its modernity on bicycles we had purchased.

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Annie Sullivan-Chin

Class of 2008,
winner of Barbara Yen Sun Prize Fund

When I was a first-year, I started taking Chinese because it was unlike any language I had ever experienced. Since I was young I have loved learning languages, but despite my Chinese heritage I could barely count to ten by the time I entered Mount Holyoke. I had been to China once before, when I was fourteen: my father, sister and I traveled to Beijing for two weeks with my grandmother as our guide. None of us knew any Chinese but her, and I remember feeling a profound sense of disconnect with the multitude of people that surrounded me. There were so many people, but I could not communicate with any of them. I remember thinking that as a visitor, it was my responsibility to resolve that disconnect, and I vowed to return to China someday--but to learn Chinese first.

Throughout my course of study at Mount Holyoke, I have realized a passion for sociolinguistics within the context of Chinese language. I have traveled to Beijing and studied at both Peking University and the Beijing Language and Culture University. My experience in Beijing was invaluable because I was able to observe the cultural and political center of modern China. China has undergone the fastest urbanization in human history; the social and economic disparity between urban and rural culture is severe.

I have realized that again, I must return to China, but next time I will travel to regions beyond the cultural centers where local customs and dialects differ greatly from urban standards. My experience writing a senior thesis in Asian Studies has been integral to my discovery of the true cultural and linguistic diversity of the people within this land’s vast geography. I am honored to receive the Barbara Yen Sun Prize for my research in nüshu--a writing system created by women in rural southern Hunan. Through my research, I have learned a tremendous amount about this small and isolated community of linguistically sophisticated women. However, I have also developed a capacity to critically examine the scholastic literature I encounter in my research process. This has been the most valuable skill that I have developed through my research--one that will certainly serve me well beyond the gates of Mount Holyoke.

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