Date: July 11, 2025

Source: People's Daily Online

Editor: Li Weimiao

Established in 1906, Jinan University has long been honored as the top institution for overseas Chinese education. It has cultivated a vast number of outstanding professionals across various industries for Malaysia. As one of the earliest Chinese universities to recruit students from Malaysia, it remains one of the Chinese higher education institutions hosting the largest number of Malaysian students. Currently, approximately 200 Malaysian students are pursuing their studies at Jinan University. Generations of Malaysian alumni have used their professional expertise as a shuttle, weaving an enduring cultural path between the warp and weft of Chinese civilization and Southeast Asian cultures.

In a classroom at Sri Kuala Lumpur International School in Malaysia, teacher Yu Weijun transforms the tonal patterns of the poem Quiet Night Thoughts into musical notes, teaching the ancient verses through chanting. With wings added to its beautiful lines, the poem carries nostalgia across time and space. Yu's classes are never confined to textbooks. To help Malaysian students better understand Chinese culture, this Jinan University alumna with 19 years of teaching experience introduces paper cutting, writing Spring Festival couplets, and explains the agricultural wisdom behind solar terms. She teaches students to make Dragon Year handbags while sharing related Chinese myths. She also leads choruses of True Hero—the lyric 'cherish every minute in your life' truly reflects the overseas Chinese spirit of valuing time and striving forward. This living transmission elevates Chinese language education beyond mere language acquisition, transforming a compulsory subject into a cultural feast and an emotional bond connecting China and Malaysia. Her students achieve straight A's year after year, with Principal Chen Shuncheng praising her for holding up half the sky of the school's Chinese education. Yu's classroom epitomizes Chinese education in Malaysia. Chinese is a key that opens the door to a new world, she says, noting many students' parents are businesspeople or professionals who recognize Chinese's importance on the global stage. Her innovative teaching enhances not only language skills but also students' cultural identification.

If education represents the capillaries of cultural dissemination, then literature forms its central nervous system. Zeng Weilong, now an assistant professor at the Institute of Chinese Studies, Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT), completed his undergraduate studies in Jinan University's Department of Chinese. Entering his research office feels like stepping into a miniature literary excavation site, with yellowed pages of the Mahua New Literature Series spread beneath the lamplight. Through analyzing predecessors' anthologies and articles, Zeng dissects their literary thinking, mapping the development trajectory of Malaysian Chinese literature. He pays particular attention to writers and works excluded from mainstream anthologies. Through his systematization, these neglected names form an alternative literary lineage. There will always be those willing to record buried stories, he states. The academic foundation acquired at Jinan University enables Zeng to cultivate cross-cultural hybrid rice in his literary fieldwork. Those youthful days spent debating literature overnight with classmates in Jinan University's old bookstores have transformed into confident presentations at academic conferences, gradually bringing once-marginalized Malaysian Chinese literature under the spotlight of international Sinology research.

Media constitutes another frontline for cultural transmission. Jinan University alumna Chen Yunchuan transitioned from news anchor to self-media entrepreneur, founding the website The Interview to gather Malaysia's outstanding content creators who tell in-depth stories in Chinese. Everything on the internet begins with an interview, Chen remarks. Seizing the digital wave, she built a photography team dedicated to enhancing Chinese's influence in Malaysia. In a Kuala Lumpur advertising agency's creative workshop, Zheng Yanxin skillfully edits videos using editing software. The Jinan University broadcasting and television graduate expertly crafts documentaries, short videos, and variety programs, subtly incorporating elements of Chinese culture. Amid globalization's tides, these cross-ocean efforts make media a vessel carrying cultural identity, sailing Chinese culture toward broader horizons.

Next year, Jinan University will celebrate its 120th anniversary. Looking back, the life paths of generations of Malaysian alumni collectively form a Cultural Constellation of Southeast Asia. Their endeavors demonstrate that when cultural transmission transcends geographical going out and elevates to value-level going deep, the seeds of culture can grow into towering trees.

Original link: https://www.peopleapp.com/column/30049631093-500006369533