"To express our love for China, we need to start with language, use culture to blend, let language become a bridge for cultural exchanges between China and Laos, let more Lao people begin to understand China, perceive China, and narrow the distance with this country with a history of 5,000 years of civilization."
The person who speaks Chinese this is Tong Bai, a doctoral student studying in China, from a small village in Namtha County, Lang Namtha Province, Laos.
Tong Bai was once a teacher at a university in Laos, because he liked Chinese culture, he began to teach chinese by himself in 2000, during which he met Pan Yue, a teacher of Guangxi University for Nationalities who went to Laos to study and exchange, and under his guidance, his Chinese level continued to improve. In 2009, he first came to Yuxi City, Yunnan Province to learn Chinese, and he was deeply attracted by the Chinese Chinese dialect and Chinese culture. In order to have the opportunity to study and further study in China, he decided to temporarily give up his job as a university teacher in Laos, successfully won a scholarship and became a master's student at the Central University for Nationalities. In 2013, after he successfully obtained his master's degree and returned to work at Lang Namtha Normal College in Laos, he has been committed to the dissemination of Chinese culture and language and cultural exchanges. In two years, he still can't give up his love for China, and through unremitting efforts to apply for a scholarship again, he came to Kunming to pursue a doctorate in linguistics at Yunnan Normal University.
In TongBai's view, the construction of a community of common destiny between China and Laos is inseparable from the mutual respect for the diversity of civilizations of the two countries, and the replacement of cultural barriers and conflicts with cultural exchanges and mutual learning. Language is the carrier of culture, to tell a good story, spread a good voice, cultural exchanges and language exchanges are equally important.
To this end, during his stay in China, Tongbai carried out language and culture research and mutual learning with educational institutions such as Beijing Language and Culture University, Minzu University of China, Yunnan Normal University and Yunnan Nationalities University, such as the "Lao Punei Language Research Project" and the "Lao Sila Language Research Project". In order to sow the seeds of friendship and let more people understand China, Tongbai joined the team of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation series of theme publications of Yunnan Education Publishing House, translated or approved and published a series of books in Laotian such as "Drinking One River together", "Picture Books on Classic Stories of Ethnic Minorities in Yunnan", "Lancang-Mekong Countries Jointly Poverty Alleviation and Prosperity Story Collection", "Lancang-Mekong Park Handbook" and a series of Books in Laotian language, which greatly promoted Sino-Lao cultural exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.
The 20 years of studying Chinese culture are also the 20 years of China's rapid development. The world is marveling at China's speed and Chinese manufacturing, and I know that these are the result of the hard work and wisdom of Chinese people. I am very happy to come to China to study, so that I can share Chinese culture and Chinese stories with more people, and I am also very honored to find a new direction and life goal in China. Tong Bai said.
In China, Tongbai is not only an international student, but also a foreign teacher and a language worker. In his spare time, in addition to teaching Laos oral language classes and Lao culture to students at Yunnan University for Nationalities, TongBai also participated in many language and cultural exchanges, such as simultaneous translation of Dai-Thai language and cultural exchanges in the China-Laos Mekong Subregion, translation of the Yunnan Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, the Financial Research Group of Yunnan Normal University and other institutions to Laos, and so on. He hoped to use this as a stage to publicize and introduce the LMC mechanism, increase trust and dispel doubts, seek common ground while reserving differences, use language to promote exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and Laotian civilizations, and make the belief in building a community of common destiny between China and Laos firmer, more extensive and more diverse.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special Fund Project "Lancang-Mekong Park Handbook". (Courtesy of Yunnan Education Publishing House)
The most memorable thing about Tongbai is the third anniversary of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation and the reception of the 2019 "Lancang-Mekong Week". He made a wonderful sharing of a Chinese and English painted book dedicated to the third anniversary of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation, "Hand-painted Lancang-Mekong".
"As a witness and participant of the LMC, I am grateful to be able to make an effort within my ability to make a contribution to the cultural exchanges between the six Lancang-Mekong countries and jointly tell the Chinese story of 'building a community of common destiny between China and Laos'..." At that time, Tong Bai told the dialogue and affection between the six Lancang-Mekong countries, shared his story of participating in the publication of the theme of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation and helping the construction of the China-Laos community of common destiny, which received warm applause from the audience. In the past ten years in China, Tongbai has seen the earth-shaking changes brought about by the battle against poverty, and has taken the initiative to participate in the translation and publication of the "Lancang-Mekong Countries' Stories of Joint Poverty Alleviation and Prosperity" (Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special Publishing Fund Project), telling the story of the sunshine of poverty alleviation shining into the vivid lives of cross-border ethnic groups in the Lancang-Mekong Basin, showing the wisdom and strength of poverty reduction practice with Chinese characteristics and contributing to the world's poverty reduction cause. In TongBai's view, foreign translation and publication, as a cross-language and cross-cultural exchange behavior, highlights the deep friendship of the six Lancang-Mekong countries of "drinking the same river and the fate is closely linked", plays an important media role in the cultural exchanges and mutual learning between the two countries, and lays a solid public opinion foundation for jointly promoting the construction of a common destiny for mankind.
Tong Bai (left) and the publisher's editors at the third anniversary of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation and the 2019 Lancang-Mekong Week reception. (Courtesy of Yunnan Education Publishing House)
Recently, the "Lancang-Mekong Park Handbook", which was funded by the 2021 Lancang-Mekong River (hereinafter referred to as the Lancang-Mekong River) Cooperation Special Publishing Fund" funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance of the People," was first launched on the day of the opening ceremony of the China-Laos Railway, and was given as a gift to foreign envoys invited to participate in the opening ceremony of the China-Laos Railway, contributing China's strength to enhancing the friendship between the two peoples and promoting people-to-people ties. "I hope to take the China-Laos railway back to China as soon as possible to complete the defense of my doctoral thesis, return to Laos after graduation to continue to carry out language research, use language to build a bridge for cultural exchanges between the two countries, sow the seeds of friendship, and make positive contributions to the exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and Laotian civilizations." TongBai said.
(Guangming Daily all-media reporter Ren Weidong correspondent Xu Zihan and Yang Xue)
Source: Guangming Daily WeChat public account