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Cunningham Speaks at Asian Studies Conference
10/17/2007
 William J. Cunningham, FSO, retired and associate professor emeritus of international studies at the University of St. Thomas, chaired a round table discussion on the U.S. Department of State’s Chinese Language program. Cunningham’s presentation is titled, “Legends of San Kuan Miao: The U.S. Department of State Chinese Language Training Program at Peking—1902-1949.” His discussion is part in the 36th Annual Mid-Atlantic Conference of the Association for Asian Studies at the University of Maryland in College Park, Oct. 27-28.
Cunningham was director of the U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Chinese Language and Area Training Center in Taiwan from May 1961-May 1962. He also attended the school as a language officer in training from January 1957-June 1958.
This October marks the 105th anniversary of the program’s beginning in Peking, now Beijing, China. The round table will include Dr. Thurston Griggs who was principal of the Peking program in 1946 and three surviving graduates of the program.
Cunningham retired in 1993 as the director of the Center for International Studies at UST. It was after his retirement that he began his research on the “old Peking” program, which has included several interviews with officers trained in Peking, as well as a week of research in the National Archives. Cunningham retired from U.S. Foreign Service in 1982.
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