A group of young students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently demonstrated their Chinese language skills and explained what had drawn them to learn this oriental language.
As UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan arrived in Beijing for a state visit to China from May 29 to 31, a China Global Television Network (CGTN) reporter hit the streets of the Arab country to find out about Emirati youngsters' passion for the Chinese language.
Several elementary school students greeted the audience and briefly introduced themselves in fluent Chinese.
"Hello everyone, my name is Abdullah. I am from the United Arab Emirates. I am nine years old. There are six people in my family - my father, mother, younger siblings and me. The Emirati people and Chinese people are good friends. I like to write Chinese,” said a student called Abdullah, speaking confidently in Chinese.
"Hello everyone, I'm Mariam, seven years old. I am an Emirati. I love China," said equally confident fellow student Mariam.
These young Emiratis expressed their love for the Chinese language and culture, and said they wanted to learn more about the country.
"It's a very useful language. And, who knows, in a few years maybe we might be speaking more Chinese than English," said Abdullah.
"I learn Chinese because it's the easiest way to speak and because it's the best country in the history planet," said Sultan, a nine-year-old student.
"Because the language, Chinese, is the biggest language in the world, it can help us to know the Chinese culture and history," said Rashid, another nine-year-old student.
In July 2019, witnessed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his UAE counterpart, the two countries signed a memorandum in Beijing, officially launching the "Hundred Schools Project" promoting Chinese language education in the UAE. To date, there are 171 schools in the Arab country offering Chinese language courses, with 71,000 students learning Chinese.
Recently, 40 elementary and middle school student representatives from two demonstration schools that are part of the project in the UAE wrote letters to Xi in Chinese, expressing their love for Chinese culture and their aspirations to be ambassadors of the China-UAE friendship.
In a reply to their letters, which was released Sunday, Xi welcomed the students to come to China to see pandas and visit the Great Wall and encouraged them to have a good command of the Chinese language and learn more about China so as to contribute to promoting friendship between the two countries.
UAE students share passion for learning Chinese
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for greater efforts to adapt Marxism to the Chinese context and the requirement of the times.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the requirement in an instruction on the project of studying and developing Marxist theory in the new era.
Xi said the project of studying and developing Marxist theory is a basic and strategic one for strengthening the Communist Party theoretically. Over the past 20 years, the project has achieved many high-quality results, and played an important role in aspects including studying and publicizing the Party's new theories and consolidating the guiding role of Marxism in the ideological domain.
Xi stressed efforts to uphold fundamental principles and break new ground on the new journey of the new era, focus on studying, publicizing and implementing the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, deepen systematic research and interpretation that elevate practical experience and understanding into academic and theoretical knowledge, and help the people better embrace the Party's new theories with more targeted and effective study and publicity.
Xi urged endeavor to stick to adapting the basic tenets of Marxism to China's specific realities and its fine traditional culture, carry out in-depth study on the major questions discovered in the practice of building China into a great country and moving toward national rejuvenation on all fronts through Chinese modernization, speed up the building of a Chinese intellectual system in philosophy and social sciences, and train high-quality human resources for theoretical development, so as to make greater contributions to adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the requirement of the times.
A work meeting on the project of studying and developing Marxist theory was held in Beijing on Friday.
The meeting conveyed Xi's instruction.
Cai Qi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, was present at the meeting and delivered a speech.
Cai called for efforts to deepen research on the basic tenets of Marxism for in-depth answers to China's specific and practical questions, and sum up original theories, while improving institutions and mechanisms and fostering a sound academic atmosphere in this regard.
Li Shulei, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting.
State Councilor Shen Yiqin was present at the meeting.
Xi urges more efforts to adapt Marxism to Chinese context, requirement of times
