TEACHING CHINESE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN CHINA

In China the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language (TCFL) goes back to ancient times. It is recorded in the historical literature that China accepted foreign students as early as in the East Han Dynasty (25-220 A.D.). In each of the subsequent dynasties, there were many foreigners who came to learn both written and spoken Chinese. TCFL hadn’t been developed into a specialized undertaking prior to the founding of New China in 1949, however. To put it more precisely, it wasn’t until the early 1950s. As