China News Agency, Changsha, April 16th: Shen Min: How can Chinese education build a bridge for the overseas dissemination of Chinese culture?
China News Agency reporter Bai Zu and Tang Xiaoqing
China has rich resources for overseas Chinese affairs, with more than 60 million overseas Chinese living in nearly 200 countries and regions around the world.
Chinese education is the "Hope Project", "Remaining Root Project" and "People's Heart Project" of overseas Chinese communities. It is of great significance for overseas Chinese to inherit Chinese language and culture, and to promote mutual understanding between Chinese and foreign peoples and cultural exchanges and mutual learning.
Shen Min, deputy dean of the School of International Chinese Culture at Hunan Normal University, recently said in an exclusive interview with China News Agency "Dongxi Wen" that Chinese education is a natural platform to promote Chinese culture to "go global" and cultivate and demonstrate the soft power of Chinese culture.
He believes that in order to play a better role in promoting Chinese language and Chinese culture to the world, Chinese education needs to properly handle the relationship between inheritance and dissemination, career and industry.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Service reporter: What stages has overseas Chinese education gone through from the beginning of its development to the present?
What new changes and new features are present?
Shen Min: Where there is sea water, there are Chinese, and where there is Chinese, there is Chinese education.
The current view of the stage division of overseas Chinese education is based on the World War II as the watershed.
The overseas Chinese education before World War II was called "overseas Chinese education" or "expatriate education", which was the extension of Chinese national education overseas.
After the outbreak of World War II, Chinese education in most countries stagnated.
After World War II, with the independence of colonial countries and the adjustment of the new China's policy towards overseas Chinese, most of the overseas Chinese became the nationality of the host country.
Affected by factors such as international politics and national nationalism, Chinese education fell into a long period of decline in the 1950s and 1960s, and Chinese schools basically disappeared in some countries.
Chinese education in most countries has changed from the teaching of the first language to the teaching of the second language.
In the 1980s and 1990s, overseas Chinese education was revived and developed rapidly with the rise of China's international status.
Today, there are more than 20,000 overseas Chinese schools.
In 2014, the 3rd World Conference on Chinese Language Education reached a consensus on "promoting the transformation and upgrading of Chinese language education, and promoting Chinese language education to move towards standardization, formalization and specialization". "New stage.
At present, Chinese language teacher certification standards, Chinese language proficiency tests, and reference standards for overseas full-time Chinese schools have been launched one after another. Local Chinese language teachers have significantly improved their academic qualifications and specialization, and overseas Chinese language schools have continued to improve their educational conditions. "The combined teaching material system is gradually formed.
With the advancement of the "Belt and Road" construction, the concept of "Chinese +" in overseas Chinese education has also been put into practice, and the demand for talents who are both proficient in Chinese and professional skills is growing.
The 3rd World Conference on Chinese Education held the Chinese Education Forum, inviting 8 well-known figures in the Chinese education field to conduct interactive exchanges.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Qin
China News Service: More and more overseas people want to know China and start to learn Chinese.
What positive effect does "Chinese Craze" have on the development of Chinese language education?
Shen Min: More and more overseas people realize that mastering Chinese means they can better keep up with the fast track of China's development and have a better future.
The role of "Chinese fever" in promoting the development of overseas Chinese education is obvious.
First, enhance the "language confidence" and "cultural confidence" of the overseas Chinese world.
When the language of the motherland is learned by more people, the culture of the motherland attracts more and more attention, the confidence of the overseas Chinese community in the Chinese language and Chinese culture continues to increase, and the Chinese national identity and cultural identity will also increase.
Second, strengthen the motivation of overseas Chinese to learn Chinese and enhance the endogenous motivation of Chinese education.
When the mainstream social groups and friends around them are working hard to learn Chinese, and Chinese learning brings more practical value and a better life to mainstream social learners, it is easier for Chinese people to change their motivation for learning from "I want to learn" to "I want to learn." ".
Third, it will help Chinese education gain more policy support from the host country, win a better development environment, and make Chinese language learning more convenient and more diverse for ethnic Chinese groups.
In the Xinhua Book City, Manila, the capital of the Philippines, a whole bookshelf is filled with Chinese learning materials.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Guan Xiangdong
China News Service reporter: What difficulties and bottlenecks have encountered in the implementation of overseas Chinese education?
How to seek breakthroughs?
Shen Min: Entering the 21st century, especially since the implementation of the "Belt and Road" initiative, the development of overseas Chinese education has ushered in an unprecedented period of historical opportunity, but there are still many problems in the development process.
Many countries have a long way to go in the construction of the "three modernizations" (standardization, formalization, and specialization) of Chinese education due to the long-term failure and constraints of ideas, economy, and educational development levels.
Taking standardization as an example, except for Singapore and Malaysia, the Chinese curriculum standards and Chinese syllabus and other industry standards in Southeast Asian countries are relatively lacking and weak, making it difficult to guarantee the teaching quality and teaching efficiency.
The problem of "three teachings" (teachers, teaching materials, and teaching methods) in Chinese education has not been well resolved.
Although the number and overall quality of Chinese language teachers have been enriched and improved, and the degree of education and professionalization has been significantly improved, there is still much room for improvement in both "quantity" and "quality".
The ability of each country to independently train Chinese teachers needs to be strengthened.
There are various forms of overseas Chinese education, some are close to first language teaching, some are close to second language teaching, and many are in between.
Different countries and regions have very different school-running forms, management models, curriculum settings, and student learning conditions.
At present, there is not enough investigation and research on the characteristics of Chinese learning under different teaching nature and forms, and insufficient grasp of learning situation, which affects the "precise implementation" of Chinese education.
The trend of "younger" overseas Chinese learners is also very obvious, but at this stage, Chinese teaching research and teaching theory construction still pay less attention to the Chinese learning of young learners.
Faced with these problems, we can consider from several aspects: First, classified guidance, according to the actual situation of overseas Chinese education diversity, formulate regional and country-specific Chinese education standards and Chinese education standards with different teaching nature and school-running forms. Leading the improvement of Chinese teaching quality.
The second is to take multiple measures to vigorously promote the construction of local Chinese language teachers.
Adhere to the combination of "study in China" and "on-site training", and consider how to improve the ability of each country to independently train Chinese teachers.
The third is to strengthen the problem-oriented Chinese education investigation and research.
For example, a comparative study of the Chinese language learning characteristics of Chinese and non-Chinese, and an empirical study of Chinese teaching modes and methods in the context of "younger age".
These "down-to-earth" studies are conducive to the precise implementation of overseas Chinese education in the new era.
The fourth is to enhance and expand the focus of Chinese education.
The inheritance of Chinese language is not limited to school education, but also needs to be combined with family, Chinese community, Chinese media, language landscape, cultural activities, etc.
"Chinese Culture Overseas Tour - Indonesia Camp" activity.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
China News Service: Realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation requires overall improvement including soft power.
How can Chinese education play a unique role in promoting Chinese culture to the world?
Shen Min: Telling Chinese stories well and spreading Chinese voices well, Chinese education is a natural platform.
Chinese education is also a natural platform to promote Chinese culture to "go global" and cultivate and demonstrate Chinese cultural soft power.
In order for Chinese language education to play a better role in promoting Chinese language and Chinese culture to the world, two relationships need to be properly handled:
One is the relationship between inheritance and dissemination.
Inheritance occurs between generations within a group and is vertical; transmission occurs between groups and is horizontal.
In Chinese education, inheritance and dissemination should complement each other and have a positive interaction.
In the past ten years, more and more non-Chinese people have entered Chinese schools to study, which is a welcome change in the expansion of Chinese education from intergenerational inheritance to horizontal spread.
In order to better integrate and radiate into the mainstream society, Chinese education must not only be passed down from generation to generation, but also expanded horizontally.
The second is the relationship between career and industry.
Chinese education is a "rooted" cause in Chinese society, but to expand coverage and influence, and enhance internal development momentum, industrialization can be attempted in suitable areas and schools.
As long as the main goal of Chinese education is not lost, Chinese education in the form of an industry can play an economical and practical function, as well as the function of people-to-people exchange and cultural dissemination.
The linkage between career and industry is more conducive to the development of Chinese education itself and the promotion of Chinese language and Chinese culture to the world.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Shen Min, Deputy Dean of the School of International Chinese Culture of Hunan Normal University, Executive Deputy Dean of the Institute of Chinese International Promotion, President of the Chinese Second Language Teaching and Research Association (2019), and Director of the Hunan Language Society.
The main research directions are Chinese grammar and international Chinese education. He has traveled to the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Indonesia, the Philippines and other countries to spread Chinese language and Chinese culture. He has published 30 academic papers in journals such as "Language Studies", "Chinese Learning" and "Language Science". He has published 2 books and edited 1 set of Chinese textbooks (36 volumes).