International Chinese Language Program - History

History

The center was established in 1961 by Stanford University to meet the stringent research and educational needs of Stanford University students. In 1963, the Inter−University Board was created and the official name became the Inter−University Program for Chinese Language Studies (IUP), commonly referred to as the "Stanford Center," with several top American universities contributing funds and participating in the center. Owing to the quality of the teachers and materials, as well as the intensity of instruction, this program quickly became the world's premier center for the intensive study of Mandarin Chinese, training several generations of the world's top sinologists, including professors, diplomats, and business leaders.

In 1997, a new IUP was established at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. National Taiwan University assumed full administration of the program in Taiwan, and the name was changed to the "International Chinese Language Program at National Taiwan University" (ICLP). Though it changed its name, ICLP continued with the same teachers, same course materials, and same traditions as an elite Chinese training program, with the same level of intensive instruction and small classes that have made it the standard against which other Mandarin training programs are measured. ICLP has produced and continues to produce some of the best known texts for instruction in Mandarin. In January 2006, ICLP, though long-associated with National Taiwan University and having always been located there, was finally formally merged into NTU as an institute of the university.