Yanfeng Qu

 A recipient of the first Annual Dean of Arts Teaching Award, Dr. Yanfeng Qu has been teaching and coordinating KPU's Mandarin Chinese Program since 1996. He earned his M.A. in Applied Linguistics at Beijing Foreign Studies University and his Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of British Columbia, with his acclaimed doctoral dissertation on Chinese syntax and research presentations at major national and international conferences. His strong academic credentials, combined with his background as a native speaker of Mandarin and his over 30 years of post-secondary teaching experience, all contribute to making his Mandarin courses academically focused and effective as well as pedagogically efficient and student-friendly. Under his tutelage, learning Mandarin is by no means drudgery; on the contrary, it is an intellectually inspiring, culturally enriching and socially engaging experience. He often says that nothing makes his career more rewarding and fulfilling than seeing his students fall in love with this challenging but charming language, receive government or private scholarships as well as win prizes and bursaries in the annual BC 'Chinese Bridge' Mandarin Speech and Singing Contests since 2001. Some of his former students are either working with government agencies and private sectors using Mandarin on a daily basis or moving on to further their studies in Chinese in North America, China or Taiwan. As his colleagues in the Chinese teaching community say, he must have done something right for such an exceptional track record of student learning success!

  When he is not teaching, you will find Dr. Qu hiking, playing volleyball or Taichi or (if it rains) sipping a cup of green tea over a good textbook on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), his newly discovered passion in recent years. As the Vice President of The Canadian Teaching Chinese as a Second Language Association, Dr. Qu organized two Study-TCM programs for Canadian Chinese teaching professionals at the prestigious Shanghai University of TCM in 2017 and 2018. He was awarded full scholarships by HANBAN (“Chinese Language Council International”) as well as Certificates of Completion for completing the intensive ‘Traditional Chinese Medicine Professional Development Programs’ at the University’s International Education College. He designed ACUP 1110 (Mandarin Foundation for TCM/Acupuncture) and has been teaching the special purpose Mandarin course since 2016. He considers it his favorite course to teach as it combines his passion for TCM and his academic expertise in this exciting area, a perfect match most instructors can only dream of!