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Acknowledgments

I am indebted to a number of people for their assistance in the preparation of this volume. It’s not possible to mention everyone who participated, but special thanks are due the following for their contributions:

For assistance in drafting an earlier version of the reading exercises, parts of which survive in the present version: my good friend Qunhu Li, formerly my colleague in the Chinese Program at Williams College and now Director of New Century Language and Culture Center in Tianjin. Student research assistants Jenny Chen and Tron Wang also contributed to the development of the reading exercises.

For assistance with the character presentation sheets and related work: student research assistants Emily Chang, Angie Chien, Andy C. Chiu, Anthang Hoang, and Peter Rankin.

For providing handwriting samples: Zhixin Dong, Shengli Feng, Jerling Guo Kubler, Dongshan Zhang, and Yiqing Zhu.

For corrections to the manuscript and helpful comments of all kinds: Jerling Guo Kubler, Eric Pelzl, Weibing Ye, Shaopeng Zhang, and my most collegial colleagues in the Chinese Program at Williams College, present and past: Cecilia Chang, Bing Han, Yu-yin Hsu, Hao-hsiang Liao, Christopher M. B. Nugent, Cathy Silber, Hsin-I Tseng, Yang Wang, and Li Yu.

For making the accompanying audio recordings: Jerling Guo Kubler, Fei Wang, and Shaopeng Zhang.

For providing useful information on the frequency of Chinese words and characters, as well as much appreciated inspiration and encouragement over many years: James E. Dew. I should also acknowledge here my debt to Victor H. Mair for his many stimulating comments over the years concerning the Chinese writing system.

For advice and assistance with computer-related work: Adam Jianjun Wang, Senior Instructional Technology specialist at Williams College, and Peter Leimbigler of Asia Communications Québec Inc. All of the Chinese language content in this volume was processed using the KEY 5.1 Chinese language software that Dr. Leimbigler and his colleagues developed.

For meticulous editing and many other helpful suggestions during the production of this course: Sandra Korinchak, Former Senior Editor at Tuttle Publishing. I also wish to express my appreciation for their enthusiastic support of the project and its development to Tuttle’s Publisher Eric Oey and Vice President Christina Ong; and to Nancy Goh, Ngo Su Yin, and the Tuttle Sales and Marketing team for their expertise and assistance throughout.

Logistical and financial support from the following during the final stage of the preparation of these materials is gratefully acknowledged: Tseng Chin-Chin and staff at the Graduate Institute of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language at National Taiwan Normal University; and Jenny F. So and staff at the Institute of Chinese Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Last but not least, I wish to thank the students in the basic Chinese classes at Williams College from 1993 through 2010 for their corrections and suggestions, as well as for their encouragement and inspiration.

Cornelius C. Kubler

Department of Asian Studies

Williams College

Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA