While scholars of Cantonese have been part of the department’s faculty for over a century, classes were only at the beginning level. Recent grant funding obtained by the Institute of East Asian Studies from the U.S. Department of Education allowed EALC to add intermediate classes in Cantonese and to plan the launch of instruction in Taiwanese.
Still, there was an unmet need. The Department of Education grants, while renewable, were for new initiatives and couldn’t provide funding indefinitely. And there were still no courses in advanced Cantonese or Taiwanese, even though Cantonese is widely spoken in the Bay Area. California is currently home to half the Taiwanese-Americans in the country, with 263,000 Taiwanese-Americans in southern California alone. And from the nineteenth century, California has been home to some of the largest Cantonese-speaking communities in North America. About one-tenth of the population in San Francisco speaks Cantonese, and over 75% of the Chinese speakers in the San Francisco Unified School District use Cantonese as their home language.
This means that bilingual educators need to speak Cantonese rather than Mandarin … as do healthcare workers, social service providers, and first responders. But only about 20 colleges and universities nationwide teach Cantonese, with seven of them in California. Berkeley is one of only three universities in the U.S. to offer Taiwanese.
Students advocated for more advanced Cantonese instruction, forming the group Cal for Cantonese (Cal4Canto). As students Ryan Talvola and Sam Cheng explained in a Daily Cal editorial last year, “Advanced language education allows students to move beyond regimented textbook dialogues and practice language as used in real life, developing the level of proficiency required for nuanced communication … A doctor needs to be able to wish a patient well and assuage their fears with compassion and courtesy in a culturally acceptable way, instead of matter-of-factly telling them, ‘You have cancer.’”
An initial gift from James ’95 and Eudora ’94 Ting created the Cantonese and Regional Sinitic Languages Fund in 2024. The Tings — whose daughter Isabel graduated from Berkeley in 2023 — have given generously to several campus areas, including music, engineering, history, and the Library. Eudora Ting currently serves on the UC Berkeley Library Board.
Soon afterwards, Charles Huang ’93 pledged $250,000 in support of the program. Huang has a long history of philanthropy and volunteer leadership on behalf of UC Berkeley. He founded the Huang Scholars Program, which matched students from any major with language study and internship or research opportunities — including a stipend — in Greater China. Huang is a current trustee and former co-chair of the UC Berkeley Foundation, and a member of the UC Berkeley Board of Visitors and the Letters & Science Advisory Board. He also co-chaired the National Campaign Steering Committee for the Light the Way Campaign. He and his wife, Lillian, are Builders of Berkeley; their daughters Kaylan ’20 and Charlotte ’22 are Berkeley alums.
Kelvin Chan teaching Cantonese 3A.
At the start of the fall 2024 semester, EALC launched its first class in Taiwanese taught by Dr. Sean Yeh. (Taiwanese has also been offered as a student-led DeCal class.) The students in this fully-enrolled inaugural class include heritage speakers, international students from Taiwan and China without or with limited Taiwanese language skills, non-native speakers who have studied abroad in Taiwan. Since the class is offered online, it opens exciting possibilities for enrollment for students throughout the UC system.
Momentum for the fund continues to build, especially among international donors. Vanessa Cheung ’06 and her brother Vincent Cheung ’03 — who live in Hong Kong — pledged an additional $250,000. Both Vincent and Vanessa are dedicated supporters of UC Berkeley, particularly the rapidly expanding neuroscience program. Vincent Cheung is also a member of the Chancellor’s Asia Council, a trustee of the UC Berkeley Foundation, a member of the Advisory Board of the College of Computing, Data Science and Society, and a Builder of Berkeley.
“We are thrilled to support EALC. By enhancing the curriculum and expanding language offerings, we hope to empower future generations to connect more deeply with their heritage and communities,” said Vincent and Vanessa.
Cantonese 3A student Lynn Nguyen.
These gifts will allow EALC to provide a more inclusive curriculum, one that meets the needs of California’s population and offers the flexibility to address changing needs. And with philanthropic funding for beginning and intermediate classes, the next round of Department of Education grants can focus on advanced instruction.
Quick facts
— Over 20 of the 60 languages taught at Berkeley are Asian languages
— 1 of 6 language classes at Berkeley is taught through EALC
— Berkeley has been teaching Asian languages since 1872
— More than 1 million print volumes in Asian languages are housed in Berkeley’s library
“EALC has long highlighted the richness and diversity of Chinese languages and cultures across the expanses of history and geography encompassed in our courses on literature, thought, and religion,” said department chair Robert Ashmore. “We’re very excited about the potential of this initiative not only to enrich our students’ understanding of Chinese traditions, but also to bring to the fore connections with communities in California.”
To support Cantonese and Taiwanese instruction at Cal, email Rose Hsu, director of development for the Division of Arts & Humanities.
