The 汉办/HanBan, China’s equivalent of the British Council responsible for promoting Chinese worldwide has teamed up with 湖南卫视/Hunan TV, China’s guru in reality show and LOL entertainment to produce a competition that selects college students with the most formidable knowledge of the Chinese language and culture.
The competition, known as 汉语桥/ hanyu qiao/ Chinese Bridge has been around for almost 10 years. But it was largely an academic event. This year however, 汉语桥 gos to the masses (of Chinese and foreigners hopefully). This year’s theme is flamboyantly vibrant ‘fervor with Olympics, fun with Chinese’. And judging by the clip, it does deliver.
Yes, fun with Chinese! A theme of ChinesePod from the beginning. In fact, we are working with the Hanban, having set up their online Confucius Institute. http://www.confuciusinstitute.net/ ,and consulting on promoting Chinese overseas.
I remember the head of the Hanban speaking of ’soft promotion’ of Chinese where the language is presented as a vibrant part of culture and life. No longer are the learners confined to a classroom and dictionary, we experience Chinese, live, speak and play with it.
Fun with learning. Confucius would have been proud.
Hi, I am Jenny Zhu from ChinesePod.com. I bring you a slice of the Chinese language and culture in the daily podcast. But there is so much more than what a podcast has time for, so jennyzhu.com is a space of observation and reflection on the big, small and everything in between about China.
art
July 10th, 2008 at 10:03 am
jenny,
how do people view confucius these days? his historical significance was pushed back in the 60s and the 70s. when did the popularity of confucius return?
Sweet Watermelon
July 10th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Confucius would not be proud about those simplified characters that are one of the ugly remains of maoism. ChinesePod’s connection to 汉办/Confucius Institute is IMHO the reason that traditional characters @ CP are so poorly supported. It’s a pity!
Jenny Zhu
July 10th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Art,
There has been a revival of classic culture in China, alrgely because it was ‘denounced’ in the 60’s. A lot of people think that many of our society’s woes are partly caused by a ‘moral vacuum’ in our time. Therefore we’ve seen a serge of modern interpretations of classics, in the form of books, TV shows and after-school class.
A professor named 于丹/Yu2 dan1, who hosted a TV show about the teachings of Confucius and its application in modern day life became widely popular. She’s sold millions of books and is a prolific media personality. She a bit like a ’sociomoral’ shrink, enlightening people and clearing our confusion with words of wisedom from Confucius.
And to some degree,the revival of classic Chinese culture and teachings are like post-modern self-help books in the West. Fascinating phenomenon.
Jenny Zhu
July 10th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
sweetmelon,
I hope Confucius would at least be proud of the passion and joy for learning Chinese.
Michal
July 10th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I´ve actually attended Confucius institute here in Stockholm for about a year. I have never meet teachers that are so eager to teach Chinese to westerns. Some of the teachers have been from Shanghai Fudan University and they just love to teach, is it something speciell with 上海人？