On July 24, 2021, the Dublin School of Mandarin Chinese officially established a Board of Management. Dr. Hsiao-Ping Hsu became the first chairperson of the board by unanimous vote at the meeting. Hsiao-Ping is an assistant professor at the Dublin City University (DCU) Institute of Education (IoE). He is also a subject coordinator for the Bachelor of Education Programme. Hsiao-Ping obtained his PhD degree in learning technologies from the University of Texas at Austin, and his primary research interest is digital learning. Before starting his scholarly career, Hsiao-Ping was a post-primary teacher with six-year teaching experience.
The principal Evan Furlong serves as a board member and continues to be in charge of the school's administrative and operations. Evan holds a Masters in Education in UCD and is currently working in the UCD Foundation. She has been teaching Chinese Language and Culture courses to both primary and post-primary schools since 2009. Evan petitioned Mandarin Chinese to be available as a Leaving Certificate Subject in 2016 and was a member of the National Council of Curriculum and Assessment on designing the Chinese curriculum for the senior cycle.
Tina Keenan, the former Treasurer and Acting Chairperson of the Taiwan Ireland Association (2018-2020), serves as the Treasurer of the Board of Management. Tina graduated from the School of Nursing at Dublin City University (DCU) with a degree in Children's and General integrated Nursing . She is currently a Staff nurse in the operating theatre of the Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin. She also has a professional childcare Diploma and has 8 years of professional experience caring for children from 0 to 12 years old as a registered child minder. She has been supporting the activities of the Dublin School of Mandarin Chinese for a long time and is also a veteran expatriate who has lived in Ireland for 22 years.
The post of Secretary is held by Syue-Ping Ma. Syue-Ping holds a Bachelor in Accounting from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. She served on budget, accounting and statistics for a dozen years. She has a certificate as a government procurement professional. As a volunteer, she was one of the main translators of Traditional Chinese pages for Free Software Foundation (FSF)
The representative of Taiwan in Ireland, Dr. Pierre Yang said that the establishment of the Dublin School of Mandarin Chinese Board of Management represents a further step towards institutionalisation of the most important cultural base of Taiwan in Ireland and is a milestone. The purpose of institutionalization is of course for "sustainability." We all hope that the Dublin School of Mandarin Chinese can develop in a sustainable manner. In addition to assisting all those who want to learn Chinese well, to communicate fluently with the Chinese world to achieve "social sustainability"; to achieve "economic sustainability" with exceptional business performance, and to achieve "economic sustainability". The most significant mission of the Dublin School of Mandarin Chinese, as our deepest expectation, lies more in "cultural continuity"-using language to cross cultural boundaries, share universal values such as freedom, democracy, diversity, mutual respect and cooperation, and make life richer and more meaningful. The sustainable development of the Dublin School of Mandarin Chinese is our blessing.
Looking back on the past twelve years, the Dublin School of Mandarin Chinese has been actively participating in and organising various activities to promote Taiwanese culture in Europe. The board of directors is currently planning to apply to become a non-profit organization to facilitate the sustainable development of Mandarin Education and traditional Chinese culture. I believe that Dr. Hsu can lead the school to continue to serve students who intend to learn Chinese in Ireland.
