Learning Chinese: How Difficult is It?

For the past year or so, the number of U.S. news items related to learning Mandarin has exploded. Just today, I read an article announcing the opening of another Confucius Institute, this time in Southern California at UCLA. The Confucius Institutes are vehicles for promoting Chinese culture, and serve as Mandarin learning centers, a [...]

Filial Piety

Last year and earlier this year, I wrote several articles for a magazine called Taiwanease. In April, I submitted a proposal for a regular column titled “Through Taiwanese Eyes.” I wanted to interview Taiwanese people on a variety of topics related to core cultural values, customs, and ethics, and produce an article on one of [...]