The preparatory work for the first World Chinese Conference was introduced on June 15 at a press conference by Zhang Xinsheng, vice-minister of education and managing deputy director of the State Leading Group for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.

The first World Chinese Conference will be held in Beijing July 20-22. On the occasion, specialists from home and abroad will flock to Beijing and jointly probe into the role of Chinese in promoting multicultural development. That is the first time that Chinese government will convene such a high-profile international seminar taking Chinese as a theme.

Now, Chinese language has become an effective bridge for foreign economic and cultural exchanges. The mastery of Chinese is a dream for every foreigner who is keen on learning Chinese culture.

The number of applicants taking Chinese proficiency test grows by 40 per cent year by year

With China's long-term political stability and sustainable rapid economic development as well as the increasing exchanges in the areas of trade, culture and education between China and the international society, the demand for learning to speak Chinese is in dramatic growth in various countries across the world. Furthermore, the demand is expanding from academic and teaching areas to social folks and to foreign governments.

"The United States launched AP Chinese task force by the end of 2003", said the vice-minister, citing an example. "That is to say, in middle schools, students learn Chinese and in universities and colleges Chinese course is counted as credits. According to preliminary investigations, 2,500 US primary and middle schools have offered Chinese course so far, whereas in the past there were only more than 200 schools".

It is learned that there were only more than 2,000 applicants taking Chinese proficiency test or HSK (hanyu shuiping kaoshi) more than 10 years ago. For the moment, 34 countries in the world have set up 151 places of examination. Last year, the number of the applicants reached 90,000 and the growth has been 40 per cent year on year in the past two or three years. There is a very popular demand for learning Chinese in countries of the Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa and South America.

Yearly 200 million US dollars are invested in popularizing Chinese

With regard to the funds for Chinese popularity, Zhang Xinsheng said, China has spent about 200 million US dollars annually, including the area of overseas Chinese affairs, in the past two years. As for a developing country with about 1,000 US dollars of the per capita GDP like China, it is no small figure.

To let Chinese go to the world, the State Council approved to map out "Project of Chinese bridge" in 2004 with eight measures to improve Chinese teaching: 1. Accelerate to build Confucian institutes overseas, 2. Develop multimedia Chinese teaching in a big way, 3. AP Chinese task force will be popularized in 2,500 US universities and colleges in 2006, 4. Launch the "Volunteer Program for International Chinese Teachers" and "Methods for Identifying the Proficiency for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, 5. Accelerate to popularize Chinese proficiency test (HSK), 6. Build major Chinese-teaching bases by depending on famous domestic universities, 7. Assist foreign Chinese-teaching schools to set up Chinese libraries and donate Chinese books; 8. Promote "Chinese bridge" influence on Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students.

Through these measures, by 2007, the Chinese government aims at making the number of foreigners in China getting "the proficiency certificates of learning Chinese as a foreign language" hit 10,000, and at training 12,000 Chinese teachers abroad.

It is a duty to offer Chinese teaching support in various countries

"Facing the Chinese-learning upsurge and with Chinese as our mother tongue, we are now obligatory to adopt more active measures to offer necessary support and help for Chinese teaching in various countries. However, it is more important that under the background of economic globalization, only overcoming the drawback of single culture and maintaining the diversity of human cultural ecology can the sustainable development be achieved. The maintenance of linguistic diversity is to safeguard the human diversified culture. That is where the probing into "Chinese development under the multicultural framework" lies.

For foreigners, learning Chinese is generally thought as being difficult. They deem Chinese as "a book from heaven". If letting Chinese go to the world, the difficulty cannot be bypassed. How to settle the problem? Zhang Xinsheng said, "First of all, a way should be found out to turn the "book" into an easy one.

"We have had a successful experience. China has developed multimedia "Chengo Chinese" software combining stories with interest and games. It has been in trial use in 20 states of the United States covering 15,000 students. The software wins wide acclaims.

By People's Daily Online