History of IUP

• English Name:The Inter-University Fellowship Program for Field Training in Chinese
• Commonly known as:“The Cornell Program”

In the early 1950s, scholars of China studies in the United States quickly became aware of a dearth of opportunities for advanced graduate students to study Chinese language in a Chinese-speaking environment. At this time, graduate students could achieve the skills necessary to translate primary sources written in Chinese but most lacked the ability to effectively use spoken Chinese as a means of communication. With generous funding by the Ford Foundation, Cornell Professor Harold Shadick founded the Inter-University Fellowship for Field Training in Chinese.

Running from 1956 to 1963, “the Cornell Program” was the direct predecessor of IUP, offering important lessons for structuring an advanced, on-site Chinese language training program. These lessons included striving for maximum flexibility in classroom, hiring and training the program’s own teachers, and keeping class sizes as small as possible, among many others.

• English Name:Stanford University Center for Chinese Studies at National Taiwan University
• Commonly known as:“The Stanford Center”

During the final year of the “Cornell Program,” Stanford University also launched a center for Chinese language training at NTU in Taipei. This “Stanford Center” enrolled twelve MA students from Stanford University and fully integrated the Taipei language curriculum with that of the home university’s Chinese language department. Although this Stanford-only program only lasted just one year, many people would continue to recognize IUP by “the Stanford Center” name over the program’s time in Taipei.

• English Name:Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies
• Chinese Name:史丹佛大學主辦，美國各大學中國語文聯合研習所
• Commonly known as:“The Stanford Center”, “IUP”

The Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies was founded in 1963 by a consortium of eight American universities with leading centers of Chinese studies. Stanford University, the American administrator of IUP, was joined by Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of California Berkeley, University of Michigan, and University of Washington. Yale University joined IUP the following year, followed by the University of Chicago in 1969. These ten universities formed the core members of IUP until the 1990s. Stanford Professor of History Lyman Van Slyke was IUP’s executive secretary for virtually all of its first three and a half decades of operation.

IUP’s teaching methodology and curriculum designed evolved during the years in Taiwan. For the majority of the 1960s, IUP students attended four hours of one-on-one classes each day. University of Kansas Professor Carl Leban (Field Director, 1968-69) instituted the “closed-book classroom” policy during his tenure, thereby prohibiting students from referring to their textbooks or notes during class. Professor David D. Buck from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (Field Director, 1971-72) began experimenting with group classes of two students and one teacher in the early 1970s. By 1980, IUP had implemented leading to the current curriculum of three hours of 3-on-1 group classes and one hour of 1-on-1 tutorial per day.

Housed at Taiwan University in Taipei, IUP was the preeminent in situ Chinese language center for scholars in China studies for decades, training several generations of academics focused on China. While the IUP student body was comprised almost exclusively of graduate students for the 1960s through the 1980s, the program broadened its student recruitment to reflect the growing diversity of career opportunities available in mainland China during the late 1980s and 1990s.

• English Name:Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies
• Chinese Name:清华大学IUP中文中心
• Commonly known as:“IUP”, “IUP Chinese Center”

Due to changing institutional relationships in Taipei and recognition of China’s growing role in the world, the IUP consortium began exploring moving the program to Beijing in the mid-1990s. After several years of discussions in Stanford, Taipei, and Beijing, IUP relocated to Tsinghua University for the 1997-98 academic year. This also marked the end of an era for IUP’s American administration, as Executive Secretary Lyman Van Slyke retired from his role and the U.S.-based offices moved from Stanford University to the University of California, Berkeley, where it would remain for two decades. UC Berkeley Professor Stephen West held the role of Executive Director from 1996 – 2000, at which point Professor Thomas B. Gold of UC Berkeley assumed the Executive Directorship, a position he would hold until 2017.

Fortunately for the program, Vivian Ling (IUP Field Director, 1994-2000) oversaw the program’s relocation to Tsinghua University, providing key leadership and institutional stability during the transitional period.

From 1997 – 2012, IUP was hosted by Tsinghua’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences. A 2012 reorganization resulted in two separate schools: the School of Humanities and the School of Social Sciences, with the latter becoming IUP’s new host institution.

UC Berkeley’s administration of IUP concluded at the end of 2016, at which time IUP began the process of negotiating to have Stanford University assume the role of IUP Consortium Coordinator, completed in 2018.

Despite changing institutional relationships, IUP at Tsinghua has continued its core mission of intensive Chinese language training with the goal of elevating intermediate and advanced Chinese learners to full academic and professional fluency. The program has maintained the traditions, curriculum, and teaching methodology from the Taipei days, while evolving and adding new materials to meet the changing interests and priorities of the IUP student body.

Since its move to Beijing in 1997 to 2018, IUP has trained almost 2,000 students, who have since moved on to play key roles in China-related fields within academia, business, government, journalism, law, and media.