This course is designed for beginners, with no prior study of Chinese. It introduces students to the sounds, basic sentence structures, and the writing system of Mandarin Chinese. Pinyin, the Romanization (phonetic transliteration) of Mandarin Chinese, is taught and required throughout the course. Students also learn to read and write Chinese characters. Emphasis is on developing listening and speaking skills, as well as building a vocabulary based on the ideographic Chinese characters. Chinese culture is also introduced through the course. Students must take a placement exam if this is their first RIT class in Chinese and they have some prior knowledge of Mandarin Chinese.

This course aims to improve students’ Chinese language proficiency and focuses especially on enhancing their conversational skills. The course will also increase students’ knowledge of Chinese culture in comparison with American culture through exposure to authentic sources. Students will learn expressions and manners of speaking during formal and informal Chinese conversations about their daily experiences. Students will develop their listening skills and will be able to gather general ideas and necessary details from authentic oral materials. They will also improve their abilities of narrating and describing familiar topics with various sentence structures. This course is especially suitable for students planning to study or work in China and desiring confidence and basic competence in communicating.

This course is designed to enhance students’ ability to read authentic Chinese materials and write a variety of texts in Chinese, such as messages, blogs, emails, and short stories, more effectively. The main focus is to develop practical reading and writing skills that are essential for daily life by employing vocabulary, idioms, expressions, and structures in a more natural and descriptive fashion. This course provides students the opportunity to practice reading and writing strategies in meaningful and practical contexts, and to reinforce the materials that they have learned. Through reading, writing, discussion, multimedia, and presentations, students will learn the Chinese language in the context of describing nature, people, Chinese daily life and culture.

This course surveys Chinese cinema from its beginning to the present with special attention to its transnational connections and gender representation. Films from the mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong will be examined in-depth for their aesthetic quality and techniques, and equally important, against their socio-historical, political, economic, and cultural contexts. Topics include Kungfu films, women's cinema, documentation of globalization, independent filmmaking and social activism, and more. The class is conducted in English. Assigned films will be in Chinese with English subtitles.

This course surveys Chinese cinema from its beginning to the present with special attention to its transnational connections and gender representation. Films from the mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong will be examined in-depth for their aesthetic quality and techniques, and equally important, against their socio-historical, political, economic, and cultural contexts. Topics include Kungfu films, women's cinema, documentation of globalization, independent filmmaking and social activism, and more. The class is conducted in English. Assigned films will be in Chinese with English subtitles.