DeFrancis Chinese Textbooks Recordings

166 files from the Chinese Language material have been uploaded to PodBean, Seton Hall University’s official service for podcast hosting. Direct links for each of the lesson playlists are available here:

The files can also be searched within iTunes and Spotify and downloaded, if preferred, using those apps.

About the Recordings

John DeFrancis worked at Seton Hall University in the Department of Asian Studies’ Chinese Studies program, authoring textbooks for Mandarin Chinese in the early 1960s. John DeFrancis was hired by Prof. John B. Tsu, Ph.D., the founding chair of the Department of Asian Studies. At that time, the Institute of Far Eastern Studies, which was founded in 1951, acted as a leader in the US with respect to teaching Asian Studies and conducting research on the topics in the field.

Over 100 hours of audio material were produced at Seton Hall University in Fahy Hall on reel-to-reel tapes. Between 2008-2010, as the condition of the tapes began to deteriorate, the reel-to-reel tapes were digitized to help preserve the audio materials. As such, there may be some audible background noise, clicks and other auditory imperfections in the recordings.