We are offering two courses this summer – an introductory Manchu language course and an advanced documents reading course, described below. Please contact the relevant instructor with any questions.
Course 1: Introduction to the Manchu Language
This course is intended for scholars at all career stages in any field interested in acquiring basic reading skills of the Manchu language, with a focus on the standardized script in use throughout the Qing dynasty. Class will cover the alphabet/syllabary, basic grammar, and vocabulary commonly used in Qing texts. By the end of the course, students will be able to transcribe, read, and translate short Manchu texts with the help of a dictionary.
Prerequisites:
This class is primarily intended for academic scholars working on various aspects of Chinese or Northeast Asian history between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. Members of the general public are welcome to apply but the available seats may be prioritized for scholarly purposes first.
Instructor:
Dr. He BIAN, Associate Professor in History and East Asian Studies, Princeton University.
e-mail: [email protected]
Please note, this course has no affiliation with Princeton University, and there is no possibility of formal course credit.
Dr. Bian is a historian of late imperial China with a focus on the history of science and medicine. She has taught Manchu at Harvard, Princeton, and the University of California at Berkeley. She is currently president of the Manchu Studies Group board.
Schedule:
This course will meet over Zoom. Each session will be 1 hours 20 mins long and there will be two sessions per week. A tentative schedule is to hold class on Tues/Thurs in a 6-week session from June 27 to August 5. A final schedule will be circulated depending on enrollment and time zone.
How to apply:
Please send the following materials/information by e-mail to Professor He Bian at [email protected] by Friday, June 10.
- A short CV (1-2 pp)
- A one-page explanation of why you are interested in learning Manchu, whether you have had previous experience of studying Manchu, and how you intend to use it in your study / work.
- Your current location / time zone and any known schedule conflict / time constraints that may prevent you from participating in the class.
Fee:
This course is offered free of charge.
Course 2: Reading Manchu Documents
This course is intended for scholars at all career stages in any field interested in advancing their use of Manchu language materials. Over the course of the summer, each participant will share a text that they are working on to be read collaboratively. In addition to directly helping you make progress in your own research, this course will also be an opportunity to gain familiarity with a wider range of Manchu sources and to improve your Manchu reading ability more broadly.
Prerequisites:
This course is intended for scholars with a solid grasp of the fundamentals of Manchu grammar. It’s ok if you’re a bit rusty, but you should be prepared to jump straight into reading authentic Manchu texts, without the assistance of annotations, vocabulary lists, etc. If you aren’t sure whether your are adequately prepared, take a look at the Manchu lessons here: https://www.manchustudiesgroup.org/introduction-to-manchu-in-21-lessons/. If the material in lessons 1-16 is fairly familiar to you and you are capable of making sense of the example sentences in later lessons (with the help of a dictionary), then you are prepared for the course. If you are still unsure about your level of preparation, please contact the instructor.
Instructor:
Dr. David Porter, Faculty Lecturer, Department of History and Classical Studies, McGill University.
e-mail: [email protected]
Please note, this course has no affiliation with McGill University, and there is no possibility of formal course credit.
Dr. Porter has taught Manchu, both at Harvard and online, and has extensive experience using a range of Manchu sources in his own research. He is the author of the introductory Manchu lessons found on the Manchu Studies Group website and linked above.
Schedule:
This course will meet on a weekly basis on Tuesdays from 11AM to 1PM Eastern Daylight Time from June 21 to August 9 (with the exception of the week of July 4, when it will instead meet on Thursday). Meetings will be conducted over Zoom.
How to apply:
Please send the following materials/information by e-mail to David Porter at [email protected] by Friday, June 10.
- Your CV (the brief version, if possible, but don’t go to any trouble to customize it)
- A short description of your prior exposure to Manchu – have you studied Manchu formally? If not, how did you learn it? Please do your best to include an accurate self-assessment of your Manchu abilities.
- A short explanation (1-2 paragraphs) of how you use Manchu in your work (or envision using it in the future).
- Identify a specific Manchu text that you would like to read with the class. This can be a text that is available online or in a published collection or one that you have collected/copied in the course of your own research (it’s ok if you only have a transcription). If you need help identifying a text that you would like to read, please contact the instructor.
Fee:
This course is offered free of charge.
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