University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Chinese

Over the decades, research on heritage language learners has been quite popular, but most studies concern Russian, Spanish and other languages rather than Chinese. The Chinese heritage language learner’s studies focus mainly on K-12 students and their learning motivations, writing characteristics, and identification recognition and those concerned with language acquisition address their vocabulary and verbal Chinese development. There have been very few studies about learning grammar. This study emphasizes on the acquisition of the aspect marker LE among advanced learners. To investigate the acquisition characteristics of advanced CHL learners, this study adopted the advanced CHL learners as the research group and the advanced CFL learners and native speakers as the control groups. A questionnaire survey was designed to investigate the participants' acquisition abilities. The survey utilized "similar semantics, different contexts, and English similarities" related to the aspect marker LE as the interference factors to investigate comprehension abilities and presented five different situations of using LE to investigate production abilities. There were 198 participants in the survey, and 183 effective questionnaires were collected. Analysis of the data showed the following results: all three groups of subjects are equally affected by "similar semantics" and "different contexts" in comprehending the meaning of LE. But CHL and CFL learners are more affected by English interference than NS. In the production survey, CHL learners did better than CFL, but not as well as NS. In terms of comprehension on the aspect marker LE, CHL learners did better than CFL, but not as well as NS. The understanding and production abilities of CHL learners in the United States are better than those of CHL learners in China, and the influence of English on both CHL groups is quite similar. The most important findings of this research are as follows: (1) Even when CHL learners reach the advanced level, they behave nearly native-like at language level, but cannot reach to the level of a native speaker. (2) Advanced CHL learners share similarities with CFL learners in production abilities. (3) The target Chinese language environment has no obvious influence on advanced CHL learners. The results of this study have the following teaching implications: 1) Students are more likely to acquire LE in context; 2) Students are more likely to understand LE after they have clearly understood the semantic meaning of LE; 3) It would benefit advanced Chinese learners in acquiring LE if their study program could tailor classes for them; 4) If the teachers are explicit in explaining the meaning of LE, students will be more likely to understand the semantic meaning of LE and utilized it correctly.

Ce travail aborde la place de la littérature française en Chine en retraçant les parcours de traduction des romans français contemporains. Ce processus de traduction s’est vu transformé à partir de la fin 1992, lorsque la Chine a adhéré aux conventions internationales des droits d’auteur. Inspirée par l’approche sociologique de la traduction, cette thèse adopte les outils conceptuels de Pierre Bourdieu et propose une étude sur la base d’une recherche de terrain et de l’analyse quantitative des statistiques de première main. Il s’agit ainsi d’identifier les agents de la traduction d’œuvres romanesques françaises en Chine à travers un mécanisme façonné par la structure sociale, et de chercher à comprendre qui traduit et quoi dans ce processus conditionné. À travers une première partie qui retrace l’histoire de la traduction littéraire en Chine avec les outils bourdieusiens, nous constatons que peu importe qui domine la traduction – les écrivains, les traducteurs, l’État ou les académiques – la littérature traduite du français véhicule habituellement un riche capital symbolique en Chine. Nous argumentons dans une deuxième partie que l’introduction de la logique du marché depuis 1993 a refaçonné le rapport de force entre les différents agents, et a poussé l’éditeur à jouer un rôle relativement décisif – même si toujours sous contrôle de l’État. Par conséquent, la production commerciale est largement renforcée. Dans ce paysage, la situation des romans français semble en décalage. Nous dévoilons dans la troisième partie que sur le plan du processus, elle mobilise surtout des agents formés par le champ académique et qui ont pour vocation de se lancer plutôt dans la littérature de production restreinte que dans la littérature de grande production, comme l’étude du catalogue de l’éditeur le plus actif du domaine (Shanghai 99) en témoigne. Le panorama des auteurs contemporains traduits présenté dans la quatrième partie relativise la présomption que les œuvres françaises traduites sont concentrées dans le pôle de traduction restreinte :les best-sellers français sont également traduits, mais ils ne se vendent pas bien en Chine. Cependant, nous observons tout de même que les auteurs français au lectorat plus restreint ont pu trouver un éditeur chinois qui correspond à leur genre littéraire et faire traduire leurs œuvres systématiquement. En somme, nous argumentons qu’en Chine aujourd’hui, les romans français ne sont pas moins traduits, mais ils sont plutôt gérés par des agents qui se situent dans le sous-champ de production restreinte, dans un équilibre de force entre le champ académique et le champ économique. / This work addresses the place of French literature in China by tracing the translation routes of contemporary French novels. The translation process was transformed at the end of 1992, when China signed two important international conventions of copyright. Inspired by the sociological approach of Translation Studies, this thesis adopts the conceptual tools of Pierre Bourdieu and proposes a study based on field research and quantitative analysis of first-hand statistics. The goal is thus to illustrate the translation mechanism shaped by the social structure, to identify the agents and to understand who translates what in this conditioned process. In the first section which traces the history of literary translation in China with Bourdieu's tools, we note that no matter who dominates the translation - writers, translators, the State or academics - the French literature conveys usually a rich symbolic capital in China. We argue in the second part that the introduction of a market economy in 1993 has reshaped the power relation between the various agents, and pushed the editors and publishers to play a relatively decisive role - even if still under state control. Therefore, commercial production is greatly enhanced. In this landscape, the situation of French novels seems out of step. We reveal in the third part that in terms of working process, French novels mobilize special agents trained by the academic field whose vocation lies in the literature of small-scale production rather than the large-scale production, and this observation is testified by analyzing the catalog of the most active publisher in the field (Shanghai 99). The fourth part presents a panorama of contemporary French authors who’s been translated, and realizes the presumption that French translated works are concentrated in the restricted pole: French bestsellers are also translated, but they do not sell well in China. However, we still observe that French authors with a limited readership have been able to find a Chinese publisher who corresponds to their literary genre and have their works translated systematically. In short, we argue that in China today, French novels are no less translated, but they are rather managed by agents who are located in the sub-field of small-scale production, in a balance of power between academic field and economic field. / Doctorat en Langues, lettres et traductologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Dr. Kwan Hsu was neither a superstar nor a celebrity. Her name does not come up in conversations about important contributors to her field of biophysics nor is she instantly recognizable for her contributions to Portland State University's international program or the state of Oregon's business ties with China. Yet she was a contributor, a cog-in-the-wheel, at the very least, in all of these areas and more. She was a peripheral member of a well-known Chinese family, but few in the United States know of or perhaps have interest in, but otherwise, she had no great connections or family ties to generate interest in her story. How does one process a collection for a woman who does not meet the traditional criteria for excellence or success or public interest for an archive? Where is the value to the larger historical narrative of our time in preserving the memories of someone who was non-remarkable, or, conversely, someone who may be even too unique to contribute to that greater narrative? These are the questions I wrestled with when I first came to this collection. As my research progressed, I realized that I faced more questions, and that to come to any understanding that might answer them, I was going to have to research the history of archives and archival processes. Science, the Cold War, Communist China, women, the immigrant experience, all of these issues became part of my thesis, however shallowly I was able to investigate them. Questions of identity and historiography, of power and discourse were explored. In the end, what I found was that a collection that on the outside looked unimpressive and unenlightening, could indeed be very valuable, and provide insight into any number of areas of current interest in historical research. This is that story.

The history of the introduction of the Chinese language and culture into the American higher education system is a relatively unexplored research topic to date. Yale and Harvard were the first two universities to offer the study of Chinese during a brief period between the late 1870s to early 1880s. Samuel Wells Williams (衛三畏, 1812-1884), a renowned American missionary and diplomat, and Sir Thomas Francis Wade (威妥瑪, 1818-1895), a British diplomat and sinologist, influenced the first American forays into Chinese studies at Yale and Harvard, respectively. Williams and Wade both traveled to China at a time when the study of Chinese by foreigners in China faced severe challenges. Despite this, the two sinologists diligently applied themselves to better understand Chinese and design learning materials to help others do the same. In 1876, Yale established a Chinese Language and Culture Program with Williams as its first chair. Shortly thereafter in 1879, Harvard began its Chinese Language Elective Scheme that was intended to be based on Wade’s language curriculum, titled, Yü yen tzŭ êrh chi (语言自迩集) , also known as The Colloquial Series. At the time, foreigners in China regarded Wade’s textbook as the most comprehensive resource to learn Peking Mandarin. To teach Wade’s curriculum, Harvard hired the nation’s first native Chinese instructor, named Ko Kun Hua (戈鲲化, 1838-1882). Various primary and secondary sources in both Chinese and English reveal greater detail on the work of Williams, Wade and Ko, as well as the programs offered at Yale and Harvard. By examining these sources, this thesis outlines the history of when and why Americans first began to learn Chinese in college. It evaluates the views of the first pioneers on how best to learn Chinese, and the details behind the establishment of the first American university-level programs. By examining how the views of Williams and Wade shaped the programs at Yale and Harvard, respectively, this thesis aims to evaluate the contributions of these pioneering efforts to the advancement of Chinese language education in America.

Mandarin Chinese has long been known to possess a category of words known as ‘coverbs’ in the literature, which sit in the gray area between verb and preposition. Li and Thompson (1974) describe the historical origins of Mandarin coverbs to be full transitive verbs, despite their modern state being decidedly less verbal. They also note that coverbs are a non-homogenous class. This thesis works to establish categories of coverbs in Mandarin Chinese and their distance from true verbhood in order to understand the diachronic shift that coverbs are currently undergoing before our very eyes. I will draw on the work of scholars of Atlantic-Congo languages, Oceanic languages, and other languages of mainland Southeast Asia, to create semantic, syntactic, and morphological testing for Mandarin coverbs. Using the results of this three-pronged testing approach, I will map the results on a six-pointed verb-preposition matrix in order to visualize the space between verb and preposition and how Mandarin coverbs inhabit it. I will then use these diagrams to create a numerical score for each category of coverb and place them on a linear progression between verbhood and prepositionhood. Lastly, this work will analyze the theta roles assigned by Mandarin coverbs in each category and propose stages of diachronic development for Mandarin coverbs.

The Chinese community in Malaya, Singapore, and British Borneo, as in all of Southeast Asia, is in the early stages of a radical change. This ethnic group, which already holds virtual control of the economy of these three regions, is now finding it necessary to also reach out for political representation, or even political control, in order to preserve its place in local society. Such participation in local affairs constitutes a great change for a group which has always maintained an orientation toward China, socially and politically, wherever its individuals might happen to live. The process of change is bound to be a painful one, as any break away from jealously held traditional values must be. There is, however, no real alternative; the choice must be between this change and an even more radically changed China. ... Malaya, Singapore, and British Borneo were chosen as the locale of this study for two main reasons. First, the similarities of the three are marked. They have made· up the major British colonial area of Southeast Asia, and the original population of the region was basically Malay. Second, the concentration of Chinese. population there is greater than in any other area outside China. Malaya with nearly half its population Chinese; Singapore, with a population which is four-fifths Chinese; and British Borneo, with almost one third of its people Chinese, are certainly in the position of having their future decided by the direction taken in the development of their Chinese community. The importance of the Chinese is enhanced by their relatively better educational and economic standing. Thus, it can be seen that a knowledge of the Chinese community in Malaya, Singapore and British Borneo, is extremely important in developing an understanding of the probably future development of these countries. Moreover, such knowledge is even more important in gaining foresight of the future of the Chinese in all of Southeast Asia.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Chinese

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Chinese

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Chinese