Haiyan Fan

Dr. Haiyan Fan is a TEDx speaker and creator of Chinestory (found at Chinestory’s official site): Learning Chinese through Pictures & 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 work earned the 2019 International IF Design Award. 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.