Frances Weightman

(University of Leeds, Co-Chair, Association for Speakers of Chinese as a Second Language)

I graduated in Chinese from the University of Edinburgh in 1993. After a couple of years teaching English in Jiangxi for a Chinese NGO I returned to Edinburgh and did a PhD on classical Chinese tales of ghosts and fox spirits, moving to the University of Leeds in 2001. I am currently Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at Leeds, now one of the largest Chinese programmes in the UK. I teach a wide variety of courses including language, contemporary literature, literary translation, politics and modern history. My research interests have also expanded to cover Chinese fiction from all periods as well as contemporary Chinese politics. I feel very strongly that more people should be encouraged to learn Chinese to a serious level and that UK universities have a big part to play in making this happen.