The World of Chinese, China's only bilingual magazine
for the overseas Chinese language learners, starts publication in
Beijing on Sunday.
Co-produced by the Beijing Center for the Promotion of Chinese
Language Teaching Overseas and the Commercial Press, the
Chinese-English bimonthly is mainly published overseas, said Zhu
Xiaojian, chief editor of the magazine who is also a professor with
the Beijing Normal University.
"We hope the magazine will help the people, who are interested
in China and want to learn Chinese, overcome the hardship of
learning the so-called one of the most difficult language in the
world," said Zhu.
"What's more, we believe the magazine will set up a bridge for
foreigners to get to Chinese culture and the people who speak the
language," he said.
With the rapid development of Chinese economy and the increasing
exchanges between China and the rest of the world, a "fever of
learning Chinese language" is spreading worldwide.
An investigation with the Beijing Center for the Promotion of
Chinese Language Teaching Overseas estimated 30 million of overseas
Chinese learners.
"Now, the whole world is wondering why China is developing so
fast and so well. If people can not understand China's history or
they are not aware what the 1.3 billion people like, hate, pursue
and think, they won't find the answer," said Xu Jialu, a
distinguished Chinese linguist and vice chairman of the Standing
Committee of the National People's Congress.
"I hope the World of Chinese will become a key to their
questions," said Xu.
The magazine includes more than 30 columns, such as Popular New
Words and Phrases, Enigmatic Chinese Characters, China Album and
Life style, which are taken in charge of by prestigious Chinese
teaching experts and foreigners who know Chinese well, according to
Zhu.
"In fact, besides overseas learners, foreigner in China and
those Chinese who are interested in English are also are target
readers," Zhu said.
In addition, the Chinese-Japanese and Chinese-Korean versions of
the magazine is under planning, he said.
(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2006)