Review of 文化中国: An Advanced Reader 1

[xianu]

I apologize for how long it has taken me to get to this, and for the fact that this is still a preliminary review, but here goes!

Title: An Advanced Reader I: Cultural Interpretations of China 中国文化阅读教程1:文化中国

Editor: Wang Hailong 王海龙

Publisher: 北京大学出版

Year: 2002

Audience: English speaking learners of Chinese at the advanced level (more below)

Level: This is an advanced level textbook, that seems to assume a vocabulary of around 3000 words, and a proficiency of at least Intermediate-high, and probably more appropriately advanced-low (ACTFL scale). I have been using the textbook in an advanced Chinese class taught in the US, for students with between 16-22 credit hours of modern language behind them. All of the students have spent anywhere from one month to one academic year abroad (in China), and three are heritage learners of the language (they grew up with Mandarin, and have attended elementary school in China; one even attended high school in PRC, and no, he probably shouldn't be in this class). This preliminary review is based on my experience using the book with students with this background. I will talk more about the level below.

The content of the book is somewhat interesting, and is written for non-native learners of Chinese. Students have reported varying levels of interest in the text, and for the most part, seem to like it. Even when they don't particularly like the essay, we have been able to get some good discussions on it. A few of the lessons seem very transparently written for a "foreign" audience, and offers ideals of Chinese culture as general standards or generalizations of Chinese cultural behavior. For example, Chapter 3 is called "美国人走不走后门？" As the title suggests, this introduces the Chinese custom of 走后门, and compares Chinese and American attitudes and practices with it. The author of this essay proclaims he (? the gender is not specified but the tone sounds male) is an American doctoral student in East Asian studies. However, small details that the narrator provides make him seem more like a Chinese stereotype of the American grad student, rather than the real thing. That being said, the essay generated some good discussion among the students both about the practice of 拉关系 and about whether the text was indeed written by an American, and why. Other essays in the book are either taken directly from various authentic sources or adapted from the histories.

The book is broken down into several major themes (units) within the context of "Chinese culture" Each theme begins with a main essay, with about 50+ vocabulary items, phrases (which are not necessarily 成语) and idiomatic expressions and sentence patterns or vocabulary usage items. There are a few exercises focusing on vocabulary or sentence patterns and discussion questions and essay topics. The main essays are followed by short essays that provide examples of that theme, with significantly fewer vocabulary items (10-20), exercises with vocabulary and some topics for discussion or writing. These shorter chapters act as "supporting" essays to the main topic, and basically give further reading and practice with related vocabulary on a single theme. In all there are five units (中国人的文化传，中国礼俗，中国的皇帝制度，传统的中国家庭，中国的科举考试制度) which are broken down (unevenly) into 26 chapters.

More on the level: while the book is organized nicely by theme, there is not a consistent progression in level of language or vocabulary background assumed. The language background assumed in the first chapter of the book, and the first main theme of the book was significantly more difficult than the consequent essays on that theme. In fact, Based on the average college curriculum, the first chapter is something more in line with 6th or 7th semester text, while the second and third could easily be taught at the 4th or 5th semesters. Believing that this might be because chapters 2 and 3 are merely supporting chapters to the main theme, it would follow that the next major theme essay would be in the same level as Chapter One. This is not the case. The next primary theme essay, while not as simple as Chapters 2 and 3, is still much simpler than Chapter 1 in terms of vocabulary and language usage (number of more formal constructions). A further note on the differences between the primary essay and the supporting chapters is the presentation of the materials. In addition to the length and amount of vocabulary items presented in the primary essay, there are a number of what the book calls "idiomatic expressions" in the primary chapter that don't exist in the supporting essays. This significantly increases the difficulty of the readings, with more formal language, and usually references to classical texts. The vocabulary in the main chapter is defined in Chinese, though often with English translations of the definition, and the parts of speech for the words are provided in Chinese (though no "key" is given in the text). The idiomatic expressions, however, are only defined in Chinese, with a few examples of the expression in usage. While it is good to have the examples, and necessary to have the definitions, these idiomatic expressions are often more concepts of culture loaded with literary and historical allusions, and could really use a good definition in English (not a translation). If the editors and authors of the text needed to be sparing in the English, this is where it would have been most helpful for the students. The supporting chapters, on the other hand have much fewer vocabulary items, which are all defined in English, with no parts of speech included, at all. Furthermore, and also more strangely, while the vocabulary and sentence pattern exercises given in the main chapter are all introduced in Chinese, the exercises in the supporting chapters are given in English "根据课文的内容回答问题“ as compared with "Exercise One: Remembering the Details." As a textbook, it really looks like there were two different textbooks combined into a single one, without the benefit of having consistent formatting. While I do believe it is a great idea (and pedagogically sound) to introduce a theme and then go into it in more detail, I wish it were organized in such a way as to make it more of a progression. Maybe rather than have the most difficult and the longest text in a theme first, introduce the topic with simpler vocabulary and patterns, and then provide more essays on that theme going into depth more in consequent chapters, so that the language builds, and the super long and difficult text doesn't seem super long and difficult, anymore, because you have already learned a lot of the vocabulary and patterns. This way, you still get to benefit from going into depth in a topic (rather than the sort of ADD-like smattering of topics in most textbooks, especially at the lower levels), but it becomes something more manageable.

While the book doesn't seem to be evenly-paced or organized according to difficulty, this does not necessarily make it a bad thing. This organization actually allows users to choose from among the topics and focus on a single theme, or to jump around without worrying that perhaps you missed some crucial sentence or vocabulary item might have been explained in an earlier chapter. I have had students all use ZDT (great open source tool for Chinese learners - GO CHRIS FONG!) and have created vocab lists for them that supplement and maybe explain the vocab and how the vocab is used a little better. I am also creating a number of extra exercises that focus on various patterns and vocab items that the book doesn't explain so well. With these supplemental tools, I think the book is working out fine for this level.

Overall, I like the text, and the students like it, too (which always makes for a more worthwhile investment), and I think it is a very usable, and appropriate for students with about 4 semesters of college Chinese behind them, as long as the user or the teachers keep in mind the uneven level of difficulty in the chapters. This is the "preliminary review" of the book. I suspect my review of the second book in this series would be about the same, though I haven't had a chance to really look at it, yet. If anyone has any more questions on this, I will be happy to try to answer them.

Edited November 2, 2008 at 02:09 AM by roddy