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Gallery Talk: Learning Chinese through Pictures and Stories

Talk/Lecture Tour
Garrison Lobby
FREE
No Ticket Required
Person presenting to seated group by mural of scenic street with children playing indoors.

Join us this Second Saturday to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month with a special tour led by Dr. Haiyan Fan! Drawing from her book Chinestory: Learning Chinese through Pictures and Stories, Dr. Fan will explore symbols in art to teach guests Chinese while guiding them through the museum’s collection.

Free, no tickets required.

In The Beginning
A Jarvis Jacobs Photo

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Haiyan Fan is a published author, TEDx speaker, and creator of Chinestory: Learning Chinese through Pictures and Stories, a pedagogical innovation designed to help curious minds learn the Chinese language through beautiful illustrations and engaging stories of word origins. With formal training in Applied Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence, Dr. Fan developed a unique approach to mastering this pictograph language. In her TEDx talk, “Learn Chinese in the 21st Century”, she outlined the method of growing a “Chinese language tree” by first learning the “seed” character and then unlocking 10x more characters that share the same etymological origin.

Her innovative work earned the prestigious 2019 International IF Design Award in the education category. Since moving to Northwest Arkansas three years ago, Dr. Fan has coached students in Mandarin Chinese, leading them to achieve 1st Place in the U.S. National Chinese Speech Contest consecutively in 2023 and 2024. Recognized for her contributions to Chinese education, she was also awarded the 2024 U.S. Heartland China Association Teacher Award.  Dr. Fan obtained her dual Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics & Management Information Systems at the University of Arizona, and Ph.D. degree in M.I.S. at Texas A&M University.