Vivian Ling was born in wartime China and educated in the U.S. She taught for 24 years at Oberlin College before moving overseas to direct study-abroad Chinese language programs, most notably the IUP in Taipei and Beijing. Her last position was Director of the Chinese Flagship program at Indiana University.

This book will be the first account of the development of Chinese as a foreign language in the United States, as it interacts with the relevant entities in China and beyond.

List of contributors. Prologue 1. Pioneering Chinese Studies in the era before Chinese language curriculum existed in American academia 2. A new calling for former missionaries in the secular world 3. Key roles played by elite Chinese émigrés 4. Institute of Far Eastern Languages at Yale University 5. Interface between U.S. government initiatives and academia 6. Immersion Chinese language programs, key to language proficiency and cultural literacy 7. Organizing and professionalizing the field: CLTA and its flagship journal 8. From rapprochement to engagement with mainland China 9. Memories of cultivating the field 10. Have Chinese, will travel! 11. Influential figures and unsung heroes in our time Epilogue. Index.