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[zhenzhen]

I will be graduating in 2010 and am quite interested in teaching as a professor in Chinese language and modern literature. Does anyone know what the job prospects are?

[watermarkup]

Ph.D.s in Chinese are relatively hard to come by. Someone who knows the field will hopefully comment, but my impression is that there are more positions than qualified applicants. Maybe you can't pick your dream job, but I'd guess that there will be a job for you somewhere.

[bacardiandlime]

Certainly the chances are better than, say, American studies. With the useful addition that if you are fluent in Mandarin this will be seen as an asset in non-academic careers too.
But Chinese studies is still competitive, I know people with PhDs in Chinese history, lit, or other Chinese-focused fields (art history, philosophy) who have had trouble finding jobs. Yes, a job that asks for fluency in Mandarin is going to get a small applicant pool (by humanities standards), but not as small as you might hope! If you're interested in pursuing this, definitely go to a highly ranked institution in the field. And if you can pick up a second Asian language this could really help (a second Chinese dialect is unlikely to help as much; Japanese or Korean are obvious choices, but a Southeast Asian language could also help to position yourself for East/Southeast Asian searches), and makes sense if you're interested in Chinese diaspora studies. Best of luck.