Dr. Song Jiang is the Director of the Chinese Language Flagship Center at UHM and an Associate Professor of Chinese in EALL, specializing in Chinese linguistics — with an emphasis on cognitive linguistics, contrastive analysis, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and Chinese language pedagogy. Dr. Jiang has extensive expertise in teaching Advanced/Superior level language skills to DOD employees and is a certified ILR Oral Proficiency Tester. He periodically teaches undergraduate-level survey courses on the Chinese language, lexicon, and studies of Chinese character, in addition to graduate-level courses on contemporary Chinese linguistics, second language acquisition, teaching methods, as well as research seminars on special Chinese linguistic topics. Dr. Jiang frequently offers workshops on Chinese pedagogy, teaching material development, and is actively involved in collaborative projects on developing performance-based, content-based, and project-based language teaching pedagogies and curricular materials.
Dr. Li Jiang is the Associate Director of the Chinese Language Flagship Program and Associate Professor of Chinese linguistics in the Department of EALL. She was awarded the University of Hawai‘i Board of Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching in 2019. She obtained her PhD in Linguistics from Harvard University, after completing her BA and MA degree in Chinese Linguistics at Peking University. Her research focuses on Chinese grammar, comparative grammar, and language acquisition of Chinese. In the Chinese Language Flagship Program, Dr. Jiang is primarily responsible for offering one-on-one consultations to prospective Chinese Flagship students and individualized advising for current students to devise academic plans suitable for their undergraduate studies.
Hsin-Tzu Jen is a Ph.D. student and a graduate assistant in EALL. He holds a Master’s degree in Chinese as a Second Language from National Taiwan Normal University. Before joining UHM, Hsin-Tzu also taught Chinese and cultural classes at several tertiary institutes in Taiwan and in the U.S., including Tamkang University, National Taiwan Normal University, and College of the Holy Cross. Besides teaching and research, Hsin-Tzu enjoys hiking, swimming, and Chinese calligraphy. Recently, he is working on culinary skills as he has been eating the same five or six dishes, which are the only ones he knows how to cook, for far too long.
Molly Wolyn is an undergraduate student currently majoring in Chinese Flagship and Food Science. She is the current student ambassador for the CLFC and works closely with the team on the recruitment of new students. In addition to her ambassador duties, she also helps around the office and with CFLC student council. Her journey of studying Chinese started when she entered college, and she only hopes to continue in the future! If she is not at school or work, she enjoys going for walks, watching movies, or baking to relieve stress.
Angela Chen is a graduate from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She has a bachelors in Creative Media, Japanese, and Asian Studies. At the Chinese Flagship, she carries out the role of Academic Support, specializing in assisting the development of the office’s many internal projects and working alongside Flagship students. Outside of work, she likes to read books and listen to music. In the future, she looks forward to possibly visiting her hometown in Guangzhou again, as well as working abroad in East Asia someday.
Darwin Do is one of the Student Tech Assistants at the Chinese Flagship. He is mainly responsible for photographing events, photography post-production, and selecting photos for the Chinese Language Flagship Center’s media production, including the program newsletter and the program website. He graduated from Iolani School in 2022, where he built up his photography expertise for four years. There, he studied all forms of photography, ranging from studio to film. Darwin also spent his time at Iolani studying Chinese, capping his senior year off with the AP level course, as well as membership to the National Chinese Honors Society. Darwin is currently a Freshman planning on majoring in Psychology or Biology at UHM. In his free time, Darwin enjoys watching basketball and supporting his alma mater, the Raiders, as well as the Chicago Bulls.
Maya Chang is an undergraduate student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Currently, she is working towards a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Computer Science. She enjoys traveling and has had the privilege of visiting several different countries. In her free time, Maya enjoys learning new languages and watching YouTube videos.
Associate Professor in Chinese linguistics, pedagogy, and Chinese for Specific Purposes. Professor Wang has extensive expertise in Advanced/Superior Level curriculum design and material development. She is a certified OPI tester and rater and is experienced with language proficiency training. Professor Wang is assisting with CLFC tutor training and curriculum improvement.
Jing Wu is a full-time Chinese instructor and a Ph.D. student in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Moreover, she served as UHM Study Abroad Program Faculty Resident Director in the Fall 2018 and Summer 2019. Her research interests constitute second language assessment and evaluation and intercultural development in study abroad settings. As a versatile veteran instructor, she has been teaching college-level Mandarin Chinese at the UHM for about 10 years. Her courses range from novice to advanced levels and from pure in-person instruction to fully synchronous online teaching.
Associate Professor of Chinese in EALL, specializes in modern and contemporary Chinese literature and film and documentary film. Dr. Peng is currently serving as the Chinese Section Head.
She will annually offer a lecture, workshop, or brown-bag discussion group on Chinese documentary and social issues reflected in these films, and take an active role in student recruitment.
Associate Professor of Chinese in EALL, specializes in 20th-century Chinese literature, culture, and film, as well as in cultural studies. She is the Director of Center for Chinese Studies as well as the Editor of the China Review International. She will annually offer a lecture, workshop or brown-bag discussion group on 20th-century Chinese literature, culture or film.
Jacob Algrim is a Chinese lecturer and PhD student in Chinese Linguistics at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. After completing a BA in Applied Linguistics, he moved to Guangdong, China, where he lived and worked for seven years while studying Mandarin Chinese. Five of these years were spent working as a foreign language lecturer at the university level, where an interest in academics and linguistic research was further fostered. He completed an MA in Applied Linguistics and Foreign Language Pedagogy before moving out of China to come to the University of Hawai’i. His research interests include cognitive linguistics and cross-cultural communication.
Nini Li is a Phd student in the department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. Before coming to Hawaii, she has taught Chinese in Williams College and the University of Notre Dame for 5 years. Her research interests are Construction Grammar and Pedagogical Grammar.The East Asian Languages and Literatures program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa provides students with opportunities to explore cutting edge theories and to put those theories into application. She hopes to broaden her knowledge and understanding of linguistics, syntax, semantics, discourse analysis and so on. Based on this, she wants to explore how to use theoretical linguistics to guide teaching and how to make the teaching aid the development of the theoretical linguistics, working hard to build a bridge between theoretical linguistics and teaching.
Jia Liu is working on a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. She has an M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Hong Kong and a B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature from Renmin University of China. She has experience teaching Chinese language courses and designing Chinese language learning materials as a full-time teacher in Hangzhou and Hong Kong to K-12 students of international schools. She also has experience teaching an Elementary Putonghua summer course at the University of Hong Kong to adult learners who study Chinese as a foreign language.
Jiaxin Tian is a Ph.D. student at East Asian Languages and Literatures at UHM, majoring in Chinese linguistics. She earned her M.A. in teaching Chinese as a foreign language at Beijing Foreign Studies University. She has been teaching Chinese for three years with different learners, ranging from K students to retired persons. Jiaxin enjoys doing handwork during her spare time, and she is good at making simple Chinese Knots only with her hands.
Teresa Fu is a tutor at the Chinese Language Flagship Center. She is a graduate student at the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She has been teaching Chinese in Hawaii at Elementary schools for over ten years. She loves Hawaii and considers it her second hometown.
Yiwei Liu is from the Hunan Province, located in the heart of China. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in Architecture at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She enjoys playing video games and eating spicy food, and has with a passion for exploring new experiences. She wishes to become a good friend to her students as she assists them in their journey to master the Chinese language.
Nan Wang is a Ph.D. Candidate in modern Chinese literature at the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures. Before coming to Hawaii, she received her M.A. degree from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She is a foodie and a great cook, widely acknowledged by her friends!
Jiaqi Xu is a Ph.D. student in the School of Architecture at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She received her undergraduate and master’s degrees from Tongji University in Shanghai, China. She is very interested in teaching Chinese and has taught Chinese as a volunteer teacher in Nepal. She is passionate about helping more people understand the Chinese language and culture.
Yu Sheng Chang is a visiting scholar from Taiwan and a tutor at the Chinese Language Flagship Center. She holds a Master’s degree in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language from National Chengchi University in Taiwan, with a specialization in researching Mandarin picture books, teaching aids, and game-based instruction as part of the TOCFL test preparation. She has experience in being a lecturer at several language centers and universities in Taiwan, Thailand, Mongolia, and Poland. From her travels, she has taught diverse students ranging from elementary school to university levels, as well as adult learners. Her journey encompasses over seven years of expertise in instructing Mandarin Chinese to international learners.
Coming from a heritage speaker background where I only had a basic understanding of the Chinese language and culture, I joined the Chinese Flagship Program during my sophomore year to improve all aspects of my Mandarin. The most memorable part of the program was having access to financial and educational support to go abroad to multiple cities in China three separate times. Each time abroad was a whole new experience in terms of educational rigour and cultural adaptation. These experiences prepared me to go into the increasingly global workplace as a working professional, specifically in how it allows me to approach problems from fresh perspectives. Some of my best friends today are those I’ve met in the program while abroad who were also in the Flagship program. I believe these experiences are forged through the sometimes difficult struggles of living in a foreign country for months at a time. The flagship program is really what you make of it so try your best to maximize your experiences at UH and abroad!
Flagship has been a defining moment in my undergraduate journey. I originally joined Flagship expecting to just improve my level of Chinese proficiency and possibly learn more about my own cultural heritage. I did not expect that by going through the Chinese Flagship program, I would be given so many different opportunities outside of just classroom learning. Through the course curriculum of flagship, I found enjoyment through highly collaborative projects and working alongside my peers and other Flagship students all across the U.S. as well. I found my Chinese proficiency propel from basic levels to intermediate and advanced levels quickly after opportunities to study abroad in highly established study abroad programs in Taiwan and China. I was able to meet students from all kinds of backgrounds and my view on what being in Flagship really means was expanded. It is a large community of like-minded individuals driven by their love of language and wanting to find ways to better the world through communication and finding common ground. Flagship always gave students bigger goals to look forward to on their language journey. From the classroom to different study abroad opportunities and finally achieving a level high enough to go to Capstone year. Now as an alumni, I want to give my thanks to Flagship for all the opportunities I received that I would have never dreamt of getting when I first started my flagship journey. I now work in a tech company that is continually innovating because Flagship has opened doors for me to step out of my comfort zone and strive for those bigger goals.
I joined the Chinese Flagship Program because it offered an opportunity to dive into the Chinese language and culture and develop a fluency level high enough to study and intern abroad. Although the program was challenging, it was equally as rewarding as I learned a lot about myself as a student and who I wanted to be as a working professional. The world is becoming increasingly global and it is beneficial to take that extra step of understanding the nuances of the world from a different perspective. As I navigate my career in Finance, I find myself continuing to find ways to leverage my experience in China to add value to my work. An added bonus is the amazing friendships you develop in this program – no one understands the struggle of memorizing characters like your fellow flagship peers!
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