China should step up its efforts to promote the use of Chinese
language among foreigners in a bid to spread Chinese culture and
develop the country's "soft power," a national lawmaker has
said.
Hu Youqing, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC),
said the overseas expansion of the Chinese language can help
foreigners better understand China as well as its culture.
"In fact, promoting the use of Chinese among overseas people has
gone beyond purely cultural issues," he told China Daily
in an exclusive interview.
"It can help build up our national strength and should be taken
as a way to develop our country's soft power."
Hu, a Chinese-language professor with Nanjing University, serves
as director of the National Advisory Committee for the Hanyu
Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK), or the Chinese Proficiency Test.
To help non-native Chinese people learn Chinese, China
introduced the HSK, the equivalent of the Test of English as a
Foreign Language (TOEFL), in 1991 as the official Chinese language
examination.
Over the past decade, the test has gained popularity along with
the growing global interest in China.
Up to 120,000 people took up the HSK last year, compared with
only 2,072 on the first year of introducing the test.
By the end of last year, about 500,000 people from 120 countries
and regions had taken the test. More than 150 HSK Testing Centres
have been set up in 37 foreign countries.
Despite the increasing popularity of the HSK, Hu acknowledged
that the promotion of the Chinese language still has a long way to
go.
"We have to realize that more overseas people choose to learn
Chinese just because of their need for economic exchanges with
China rather than out of their love for Chinese culture," he
said.
The professor explained that China's fast economic growth over
the past two decades is a key factor stimulating the demand to
learn Chinese among foreigners.
Now, about 90,000 foreign students come to China every year to
study the language.
It is estimated that about 30 million people overseas are
studying Chinese, inspired by growing trade and closer exchanges
between China and other countries.
More than 2,500 universities and colleges in more than 100
countries have established Chinese language programmes. In the
United States, hundreds of primary and high schools have elective
Chinese language courses.
To better combine the teaching of the Chinese language and the
promotion of Chinese culture, Hu said, the China National Office
for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOCFL), founded in
1987, has already begun to establish the Confucius Institute
abroad.
In co-operation with local universities or education bodies, the
institute is aimed at promoting the language and strengthening
cultural exchanges between China and other countries.
Hu said China plans to set up about 100 Confucius Institutes,
mainly in its neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia, the United
States, Europe and Africa.
Since the first Confucius Institute was set up in Seoul of the
Republic of Korea on November 21, 2004, the country has so far
established about 30 such institutes in 20 countries.
Another 10 will be set up soon in line with NOCFL's agreements
with foreign partners.
(China Daily March 10, 2006)
