Biodata
of
San-pao Li, Ph.D.
(January 1, 1998)


     r. San-pao Li received his Baccalaureate degree in political science from Tunghai University, Taiwan in 1966. He came to the United States to begin his teaching career in 1967 at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He received his Masters degree in Regional Studies: East Asia from Harvard University in 1970 and his Doctoral degree in history from University of California, Davis in 1978. 

     He has been teaching Chinese history and language at various institutions of higher learning in the United States for the past twenty seven years since 1967, including Harvard University, Columbia University, University of California (both Berkeley and Davis campuses), Boston College, and California State University at Long Beach (CSULB). Dr. Li was instrumental in founding the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies, California State University, Long Beach in 1988 by merging Asian Studies Program, Asian American Studies Program, and Chinese and Japanese Programs. This form of dynamic reorganization has been acclaimed as an ingenious innovation and model, one that meaningfully combines regional studies and ethnic studies. He served in the capacity of Department Chair (and Program Director prior to that) for a total of seven years until 1991. 

     Dr. Li is an intellectual historian by training and is a veteran language instructor with more than 27 years of experience. He focuses his research on nineteenth-century China. He is the author of several important studies on K'ang Yu-wei, a leading reformer in modern China. He has published more than a dozen articles and reviews in juried leading professional publications. His recent publications include "Anthropocosmic Unity: Perspectives on Chinese Cosmology, Ethics, and Religion" (1991), "Chinese Conceptions of Time and a Modern Variation in K'ang Yu-wei's Utopianism" (1992), and "Ch'ing Cosmology and Popular Precepts" in Cosmology, Ontology, and Human Efficacy: Essays in Chinese Thought (University of Hawaii Press, 1993). At the present he is in the process of completing a book-length manuscript entitled Moral Imperatives Redefined: Early Intellectual Radicalism of K'ang Yu-wei, 1858-1927. In addition, he has delivered more than four dozen scholarly papers and invited speeches to various professional societies and organizations. 

     Dr. Li is a five-time recipient of the much-coveted "Meritorious Performance Award" (1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, and again in 1989) consecutively since the establishment of the award at California State University, Long Beach. One of the highest and crowning honors in his profession as an educator was accorded to him when he was selected by the Academic Senate of CSULB as one of the three "Outstanding Professors" during the academic year of 1984-85. 

     In addition, Dr. Li is an award-winning and accomplished Chinese calligrapher whose works have been included in numerous exhibitions both in Taiwan and in the United States since 1960s. His calligraphy has also graced book covers and a host of other publications. 

     He has involved himself tirelessly in international educational exchange programs and numerous community activities over the years. He is one of the founding members of the Chinese American Professional Society in Southern California. He is the former Chair of the Chinese American Council of the Historical and Cultural Foundation of Orange County. Among the most visible contributions Dr. Li has accomplished is the highly acclaimed and successful Chinese Treasures Traveling Exhibition, a project completed jointly with the Orange County Department of Education. This exhibition, together with a carefully developed book accompanying it, highlights the quintessence of China's cultural heritage. It is currently traveling among approximately seven hundred (700) public schools in Orange County, bringing the best of Chinese culture to potentially 750,000 or more students within the next few years. He is currently soliciting funding to develop this project into a multi-media, interactive, and computer-based program, using HyperCard and CD-ROM, in order to broaden its distribution and to further enhance its educational value. It will be dedicated upon completion to "the future generations whose youthful energy and intercultural understanding will create a more civilized world," to whom the original volume was also dedicated. 

     Furthermore, Dr. Li serves as a high-level diplomatic and conference interpreter of the Unites States Department of State. He was invited by the State Department as an official interpreter for the visit of the People's Republic of China's Vice Premier Bo Yibo during the first U.S.-China Joint Economic Committee Conference, September 1980. He was asked to interpret for President Jimmy Carter, Ambassador Woodcock, Ambassador Winston Lord, former Secretary of Treasury Miller, former Secretary of Commerce Kluzniak, and U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, among other dignitaries. 

     Since then, he has been asked repeatedly by the Department of State to assist various high-level delegations from the People's Republic of China, including the "U.S.-China Joint Conference on Health" in Maryland (1982) and the joint "U.S.-China Conference on International Politics and Economy" held in the People's Republic of China (1985). Some of his most rewarding assignments include traveling to China with former Secretary of Treasury, James Baker III in 1986 to attend the Fifth U.S.-China Joint Economic Committee Conference" held in Beijing. In October 1988, he also interpreted for former Secretary of State George Shultz in Washington, D.C. when he met with Mr. Chen Qizhen, the then Foreign Minister of China. 

     During his sabbatical year in 1991, Dr. Li was invited by the President of Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan to return to his alma mater as a distinguished visiting professor and to assume the chairmanship of the Political Science Department. His dedication to his students and his shrewd administrative skills have won him many accolades and commendations. 

     He has involved himself intensively since early 1994 in the development of a highly sophisticated, innovative, interactive, and multimedia-based Chinese language software entitled "Demystifying the Impossible Language: An Innovative, Interactive, and Multimedia-based Chinese Course." It involves the employment of the state-of-the-art computer technology, using HyperCard and CD-ROM, for the purpose of creating a most effective media through which the mode of teaching and learning Chinese will be dramatically improved by removing all the conceivable obstacles for students learning this language. It offers learners of Chinese effective interactivity and unlimited opportunities for repetition with the aid of sound, color, and animated video segments in order to enrich the students' total learning experience. 


For a full version of Dr. Li's curriculum vitae, please contact him at:

Dr. San-pao Li
Department of Asian and Asian American Studies
California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Boulevard
Long Beach, California 90840

Telephone (562) 985-5493 Fax (562) 985-1535


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Last updated January 29, 1998.
Send comments and requests to San-pao Li, sanpaoli@csulb.edu.