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.
Orion Young is the Program Coordinator at the Chinese Language Flagship Center. He has a Master’s in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages from Shaanxi Normal University and has extensive experience managing US study abroad programs in China. He also taught English in Taiwan, Mainland China, and France. Previously, he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Guinea-Conakry. Orion is passionate about Chinese language and culture and especially enjoys tai chi.
Vivian Li has had the privilege to work in a higher education environment as a student and continues to do so as the Academic Support (Educational Specialist) for the Chinese Language Flagship Center (CLFC) at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (UHM). She earned a B.A. in Chinese and minor in Asian Studies and is the first alumnus of the CLFC at the UHM. During her Capstone year, she took courses such as Consumer Studies and Analysis of Taiwanese Film at Nanjing University taught in Chinese. Her internship in Guangzhou at the Green Bike-Transit focused on making Guangzhou a bike-friendly and sustainable city. Outside of the office, she likes to expose herself to authentic Chinese language mediums and is currently working on an M.A. in Asian International Affairs.
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.
