Guangming Daily reporter Chai Rujin Guangming Daily correspondent Guo Xiaolei
On April 20, Gu Yu, the sixth of the twenty-four solar terms, is also the last of spring. Legend has it that on this day, Cangjie, the "ancestor of Chinese characters", wrote a book and "the sky rains and millet, and the ghosts cry at night". In recognition of Cangjie's contribution, the United Nations Department of Public Information (now the Department of Global Communications) announced in 2010 that 20 April of each year would be designated as "United Nations Chinese Day".
This year marks the 13th United Nations Chinese Day. More than 300 embassies and consulates, Chinese educational institutions, Chinese colleges and universities, enterprises, etc. in more than 100 countries will promote the international application of Chinese and highlight and disseminate the charm of Chinese and Chinese culture by holding exchange forums, cultural displays, knowledge lectures, art appreciation, poetry recitation, song singing and other colorful activities.
With the continuous enhancement of the mainland's comprehensive national strength, the "circle of friends" of the Chinese has continued to expand, and Chinese has become a bright business card for China's excellent traditional culture to go to the world and a cultural window for the whole world to understand China.
The scene of the first "Chinese Bridge" World Primary School Students Chinese Show Competition in 2021. Bright pictures
The 20th "Chinese Bridge" College Student Competition in 2021 (online) is on site. Bright pictures
1. Where did Chinese day come from?
In recent years, the United Nations Chinese Day has become not only an internal holiday of the United Nations and its related institutions, but also a variety of celebrations organized by Chinese educational institutions and Chinese learners and enthusiasts in many countries, forming a de facto "International Chinese Day".
In addition to Chinese, each of the six official languages of the United Nations has its own "Joint Chinese Day": Arabic Day on 18 December, English Day on 23 April, French Day on 20 March, Russian Day on 6 June, and Spanish Day on 23 April. The Joint Chinese Day was established to celebrate and commemorate linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote the equal use of the six languages at the United Nations.
Since the launch of the "Joint Chinese Wen Day" in 2010, the mother tongue countries have taken advantage of the momentum to continuously expand the scope of activities, enrich the commemorative content, and gradually expand the United Nations Language Day into a world language day. Since 2020, on the basis of learning from the practices of language days such as "International French Day" and "World Russian Language Day", the Sino-foreign Language Exchange and Cooperation Center has taken the "United Nations Chinese Day" as an opportunity to join hands with the "Chinese Alliance" to carry out the "International Chinese Day" celebration with Chinese enthusiasts around the world.
On 25 January 2021, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Spanish government officially notified that Chinese officially become the official language of the United Nations World Tourism Organization. This has enhanced the integrity and authority of the UNWTO as a specialized agency of the United Nations, as well as the status and proportion of Chinese in international organizations.
Also in 2021, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) revised the language provisions of the IATA's Statutes for the first time since its inception in 1945, adding the only Chinese as an official language on top of the original English, French, Spanish and Arabic.
Since the 28th session of the United Nations General Assembly in December 1973 included Chinese as the working language of the General Assembly and the Security Council, the legal status of the Chinese as the official and working language of the principal organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations has been gradually established. To date, Chinese has become the official and working language of the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, WHO, the World Tourism Organization, and the World Intellectual Property Organization. The role of Chinese in international exchanges has become increasingly prominent, and its international influence has been rising.
Just, an internet celebrity who teaches Chinese in Baghdad, Iraq, is taking an online class. Xinhua News Agency
Inside the building of the Chinese Association in Istanbul, Turkey, Chinese teacher Jiang Min (first from right) teaches students to write Chinese characters. Xinhua News Agency
2. How hot Chinese
"Because I have learned Chinese language, I can also read the books read by the ancients and feel the spiritual world of the ancients through time and space." People like us who can Chinese can feel this romance and magic. After winning the overall championship of the 13th "Chinese Bridge" World Student Chinese Competition, 16-year-old Sweetie, she admitted that she had a "sense of mission" to share Chinese stories and Chinese culture with more people.
Over the past 20 years, the "Chinese Bridge" project has attracted more than 1.5 million young people from more than 160 countries. Like sweets, they have built a "bridge of culture, friendship and soul" between China and the world.
How hot is Chinese global? The reporter learned from the Sino-foreign Language Exchange and Cooperation Center that by the end of 2021, more than 1,500 Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms have been set up in 159 countries through Sino-foreign cooperation, more than 13 million students have been trained, and Chinese education projects have been carried out in more than 180 countries; 76 countries have included Chinese in the national education system through the issuance of decrees and decrees, more than 4,000 universities have set up Chinese departments, majors, and courses, and more than 75,000 mainstream primary and secondary schools, Chinese schools, and Chinese schools. Training institutions offer Chinese courses. According to incomplete statistics, the number of people currently studying Chinese overseas exceeds 25 million, and the cumulative number of students and users is close to 200 million.
Many countries have incorporated Chinese into their national education systems, and the number of learners has increased significantly, which has also caused a shortage of teacher resources. The upsurge of learning Chinese has also put forward higher requirements for the quality of Chinese education.
The dean of the Confucius Institute at the University of Bucharest in Romania, Blairomi, said that the lack of local Chinese teaching materials suitable for Romanian students has hindered the teaching of local Chinese, "The number of teachers in Romanian public schools is limited, and most schools are currently reluctant to recruit full-time local Chinese teachers."
There is also a psychological obstacle of "difficult to learn Chinese" in the Chinese of foreigners. Liang Yanmin, an associate professor at Beijing Language and Culture University who was the Chinese director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, pointed out that from the perspective of oral language, it is difficult to speak; from the written language, it is difficult to speak in words, "Which requires us to speak simple Chinese characters, interesting Chinese characters." It is necessary to strengthen the basic research of Chinese characters and teach them with high-frequency words, and to introduce the evolution of Chinese characters through vivid means such as animation and VR."
In addition, due to the impact of the global COVID-19 epidemic, international Chinese education is also facing difficulties such as funding shortages, shrinking markets, and digital divides. Wang Hui, dean of the School of International Culture and Education of Zhejiang Normal University, suggested that in the face of the lack of teachers' information literacy, insufficient participant participation of learners, limited teaching models, incomplete teaching platforms, and difficult teaching management problems in online Chinese teaching, interactive links such as question answering, conversation exercises, role play, and group discussions can be added with the help of big data, artificial intelligence, etc., to promote teaching design, homework correction, language practice, Chinese character writing and other teaching content to be more intelligent.
At the Confucius Institute in Lebanon, Lebanese girls display their Chinese names. Xinhua News Agency
Chinese teacher Hou Jiaqi (first from left) gives Chinese lessons to students at Rodriguez Secondary School in Havana, Cuba. Xinhua News Agency
3. Chinese scenery overseas
"At the Port of Duisburg, a lot of containers arrive in Germany via China-Europe trains. These containers with Chinese characters have also become a moving landscape in my city. "Studying East Asian Studies and the Ocean of Chinese Economy at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, he used fluent and standard Chinese to introduce chinese characters moving in his city." Travel thousands of miles, to the vast. Thousands of miles are 'heavy', the vast is 'Qing', and it is for 'Chongqing'. This means that 'a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step'. Ocean said.
Ocean graduated from the Bó Lè Supérieure de l'Arts and Sciences in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, where he was a member of the Chinese choir. The Chinese Choir of KDU Higher Liberal Arts And Sciences Is a microcosm of Sino-German friendly relations. Since its inception in 2014, the troupe has been invited to perform on important diplomatic occasions between the two countries. President Xi Jinping's wife, Peng Liyuan, visited the school in 2014 and received teachers and students from the school who came to China to study in 2016. In February 2021, after watching the video of four students from the school's Chinese choir singing the Chinese song "After the Epidemic", Peng Liyuan sent a cordial letter to the teachers and students of the school, encouraging them to make new contributions to enhancing the friendship between the Chinese and German people. "It's a great joy and honor." Andrei Portenov, a student who participated in the singing, said, "Building bridges with music and passing on hope and courage to as many people as possible is what we want to express through this song." ”
On the eve of this year's Beijing Winter Olympics, friends from the Chinese choir of Ocean and Bole Senior Liberal Arts And Sciences High School sang "Together to the Future" together, singing loudly: "We all need love, everyone holds hands together." "This Winter Olympics reflects a new stage in China's development. 'Moving together for the future' means that we should unite to solve important problems together and create a better future." ”
Chinese is condensed in the songs of foreign students and is also spread throughout the streets and alleys of foreign countries.
"Now Italy is full of Chinese characters. Whether you want to visit the attractions or go shopping, whether you are in a pharmacy or a bookstore, you can see familiar Chinese characters. Li Zuo, a student at the Confucius Institute in Bologna, used his camera to record the Chinese signs along the way from the airport to the city center.
In Hamburg, Germany's second-largest city, Chinese teacher Ruofei also found many Chinese characters on his way to work. From the Chinese signs of attractions, to the blessing characters posted along the streets, to the shop signs and slogans... In just 5 kilometers of cycling, Ruofei saw 51 Chinese characters. "I have lived and studied in China for four years and I often miss China. Fortunately, Hamburg has a close relationship with China, and Chinese characters can often be seen here, and Chinese culture accompanies me every day. ”
Overseas Chinese character landscapes are not only in schools, streets, and squares, but also in the research horizons of overseas sinologists.
"From Stockholm in the north to South Africa in the south, there are sinologists." Zhang Shuhua, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, introduced international sinology research in this way.
Giulia Facini is an Italian translator who translates Chinese books. Julie told reporters that more and more people are learning Chinese in Italy, and now many people start learning Chinese from high school. "After the book I translated was published, many, many college students contacted me and said that they had decided to write a graduation thesis on women's books."
The sinology fever also surprised Ke Pei from Peru. After completing the "New Sinology Program" doctoral program at Peking University, Ke Pei was worried about how to find a job in Peru. However, after giving a course on Chinese knowledge at the Catholic University of Peru, Ke Pei received far more feedback than expected, realizing that "the importance of Chinese topics in Peru is increasing, and the degree of discussion is also increasing."
Liu Shan, an associate professor at the School of Politics and Public Administration at Wuhan University, pointed out that sinology research in the new era "fits the historical process of China gradually moving towards the center of the world stage", and international sinology research is becoming a prominent science in the world.
【Message】
Un Assistant Secretary-General Xu Haoliang:
Language is the way to understand culture, is to enhance mutual trust bridge, I hope that more people in the world can learn Chinese, have a deeper understanding of China's culture and traditions, so as to promote exchanges and understanding of different civilizations, and build a better future together.
Zhang Ming, Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization:
Chinese is the crystallization of the wisdom of Chinese civilization and the common wealth of all mankind. Chinese is one of the six working languages of the United Nations and one of the two working languages of the SCO. Chinese long-term use has ensured the effective operation of international organizations such as the United Nations and the SCO, and has also played a huge role in deepening economic, trade, investment and cooperation and promoting friendly people-to-people exchanges.
UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili:
From 2021 onwards, Chinese will help tourists around the world learn more about Chinese culture and history. At the same time, Chinese Day will also enable China to play a greater role in the future of our organization and industry.
Director of the British Council China and Minister of Culture and Education of the British Embassy, Pao Mai Yue:
Language is a bridge to mutual communication and mutual understanding. Let's work together to create opportunities for more people to learn new languages and understand different cultures.
Subina, a native Chinese teacher at the Royal Academy of Sciences of Cambodia:
Chinese is not only one of the six official languages specified by the United Nations, but also a bridge and hub for communicating the friendship between the Cambodian and Chinese peoples. We are delighted that Chinese are becoming more and more influential on a global scale, and we are even more pleased with the rapid development of Chinese education in Cambodia.
Yang Dan, President of Beijing University of Foreign Chinese:
With Chinese as the medium, we will enhance international understanding and create a better future.
Mai Jia, Vice Chairman of the China Writers Association:
Chinese is one of the oldest, richest and most beautiful languages in the world. It is precisely because of the Chinese that the broad and profound Chinese culture has been able to flow and carry forward the energy for a long time. It is hoped that young people around the world will have more contact with and understand China's long-standing civilization and splendid culture, and build a better future together.
Guangming Daily ( 2022-04-20 07 edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily