April 20 this year marks the 13th United Nations Chinese Day.
In 2010, the United Nations Department of Public Information (now the Department of Global Communications) announced the launch of a joint Chinese Day and set Chinese Day as the day of the valley rain in the 24th solar term of the lunar calendar to commemorate the contribution of Cangjie, the "ancestor of Chinese characters".
Infographic: On 20 April 2017, the eighth UN Chinese Day, the United Nations headquarters in New York hosted the "UN Chinese Day" celebration. Photo by Liao Pan, a reporter from China News Service
Since its establishment on Chinese, it has not only promoted the use of Chinese within the United Nations, but also become an important window for countries around the world to understand the Chinese and Chinese culture.
How "hot" is Chinese global?
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Education in 2021, the number of people who are learning Chinese in the world currently exceeds 25 million, and the cumulative number of people who use Chinese in the world is close to 200 million. More than 180 countries have carried out Chinese education projects, 75 countries have included Chinese in the national education system, more than 4,000 universities have set up Chinese departments, majors, and courses, and more than 75,000 mainstream primary and secondary schools, Chinese-language schools, and training institutions have opened Chinese courses...
Infographic: Thai student Ci Chengwan writes New Year wishes with a brush. Photo by Zhao Xiao
"Various colors of skin, various colors of hair, the beginning of popular Chinese words spoken in the mouth", the song "Chinese Dialect" can be said to be the best portrayal of the current "Chinese fever" sweeping the world.
Chinese into the "foreign classroom"
Nowadays, more and more countries are incorporating Chinese into their education.
Data chart: "Chinese Day" Chinese competition held by the Confucius Institute of Malang National University in Indonesia. Photo by Sun Yanyan
In the United States, more than 800 universities have Chinese departments and institutes, many middle schools also offer Chinese courses, and some states (such as Utah) also include Chinese in the compulsory curriculum of secondary schools.
In France, more than 150 universities and more than 700 primary and secondary schools offer Chinese language courses, and the Ministry of Justice and Education has also set up a full-time Chinese governor-general for this purpose.
In Italy, there are more than 40 universities offering Chinese language courses and majors.
In 2016, the United Kingdom also announced the official launch of the Chinese teaching project "Chinese Peiyou Project" (MEP) to support Chinese teaching in English secondary schools.
On March 7 this year, the Sino-Cuban Cooperation Cuban Secondary School Chinese Teaching Project was officially launched. Rodriguez Secondary School in Havana, Cuba, became the first Cuban secondary school to offer Chinese electives.
In Africa, the enthusiasm of local young people to learn Chinese is equally high.
Infographic: Luo Yan, a student from Kenya, learns Chinese characters. Photo by Zhao Xiao
On September 7, 2020, Chinese officially entered the Egyptian primary and secondary education system, becoming another foreign language for Egyptian primary and secondary school students to choose after French, German, Spanish and Italian.
At the end of 2018, Uganda included Chinese in the curriculum of junior secondary schools. Currently, there are more than 50 secondary schools throughout Uganda that offer Chinese courses. The Ugandan education sector is also considering incorporating Chinese into higher secondary schools.
The Confucius Institute at the University of Ghana, established in 2013, also cooperates with local universities, high schools, junior high schools and primary schools in Chinese language education. Students who study at these teaching points are credited with admission points.
In some universities, secondary schools or interest classes in Rwanda, Chinese classes take the form of credits.
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Inclusion of Chinese in the "College Entrance Examination"
In order to adapt to the trend of economic globalization and cultivate more international talents, some countries have also included Chinese examinations in their own countries' "college entrance examinations".
Data chart: On the morning of February 19, 2022, HSK (Chinese Proficiency Test) opened as scheduled at the Overseas Chinese Middle School in Seoul, South Korea. Photo by Liu Xu, a reporter of China News Service
Recently, the Irish college entrance examination Chinese was held as scheduled, which is the first time that ireland has included Chinese in the foreign language selection subjects of the college entrance examination.
According to the college entrance examination schedule released by the Irish National Examination Board, this year's Chinese test is divided into three parts: speaking, listening and written test. About 100 people took the Chinese exam for the college entrance examination.
In addition to Ireland, Russia, Belarus and other places have also included Chinese in the college entrance examination.
In 2019, for the first time in Russia, the Chinese subject test was conducted in the National Unified Examination (The Russian "Gaokao").
In June 2015, the first batch of secondary school graduates in Belarus who chose Chinese as a foreign language subject in the college entrance examination took the university entrance examination that year.
Belarusian Chinese college entrance examination question types include choice, fill-in-the-blank, reading comprehension, etc.
Chinese bring more opportunities to young people
Behind the "Chinese fever" is actually the increase in demand for China's economic, trade and people-to-people exchanges. For young people overseas, learning Chinese means that more career opportunities may be available.
Andreas O'Ferrin, an Irish student who took the college entrance examination this year, said he had been studying for 10 years Chinese, liked Chinese culture and wanted to go to China later.
Infographic: Students at the Confucius Institute at the National University of Equatorial Guinea. (Photo courtesy of Lan Xi, a volunteer at the Confucius Institute at the National University of Equatorial Guinea)
Edward Ghakir, a student from Rwanda, said there are many Chinese companies in Rwanda that "if you don't learn Chinese you lose a lot of opportunities."
Bauleder, from Mongolia, also said that his parents let him take Chinese when mongolia was just beginning to "Chinese fever". This decision by his parents later made it easy for him to find a well-paid job.
Many high-level enterprises in Spain also attach great importance to the Candidate's Chinese language ability, and the local small business and restaurant industry also favor employees who are proficient in Chinese.
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In the past, it was said that Chinese children can only find their way home if they learn to Chinese. Today, for young people in different countries, learning Chinese and understanding Chinese has become a future path worth looking forward to.
Sources: China Daily, Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily Overseas Edition, Guangming Daily, China News Network, European Times, etc
Editor: Zeng Xiaowei
Editor-in-charge: Li Mingyang
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