Date: Sept. 25, 2023

Source: College of Chinese Language and Culture

Author: WANG Hui

Translator: CHEN Xiyue

During the 26th National Putonghua Promotion Week from Sept. 11 to 17, Jinan University's National Language Promotion Base comprehensively integrated its characteristics to transmit and spread Chinese language and culture at home and abroad, closely centering on the week’s theme. Putonghua refers to Modern Standard Mandarin, China’s sole official language.   

The base carried out a series of activities in Shuidongcun Village in Yunfu, Guangdong, including an academic lecture on “Seeing Chinese: A Multi-Dimensional Perspective on the Linguistic Landscape of Chinatowns in Asia” online and off. 

Shuidongcun Village is a national-level ancient settlement whose villagers are all descendants of Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, great Confucian scholars of the Song Dynasty. The village has made great effort in the transmission and development of Neo-Confucianism. To better serve the rural revitalization strategy, JNU has established a long-term model with the village that focuses on developing the village through classical Confucianism. 

JNU’s activities in Shuidongcun Village on Sept. 12 included the opening ceremony of the JNU-Shuidongcun Village's Teaching Practice Base, forums and joint activities with Shuidong Primary School. Afterward, Associate Prof. Li Xiangping of the College of Chinese Language and Culture presented a special First Lesson of the School Year: Learning Chinese Characters to Nurture Patriotic Feelings to more than 400 students. 

(Activities in Shuidongcun Village during the 26th National Putonghua Promotion Week)

On Sept. 14, the base specially invited Prof. Liu Hui of the College of Chinese Language and Culture and the Center for Overseas Chinese Studies to give a live broadcast of the lecture Seeing Chinese through Tencent Meeting and the WeChat Channel, which had 1,000 viewers worldwide.

(Scene of the academic lecture on Seeing Chinese)