Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) is willing to work hand in hand with global partners to collaborate on innovation and continue to promote two-way communication between Chinese and other languages in the world, to ensure that language education, research, protection, and services better facilitate dialogues between civilizations and enhance social progress, said Yang Dan, deputy secretary of the CPC BFSU committee and president of the university.

Yang Dan, deputy secretary of the CPC BFSU committee and president of the university, speaks at the opening ceremony of the 2023 International Chinese Language Day in Beijing on Apr 20. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn]

Addressing the opening ceremony of the 2023 International Chinese Language Day held in Beijing on Apr 20, Yang said that BFSU has always been committed to global language education, bringing foreign languages to China while introducing the Chinese language to the world.

To boost the internationalization of the Chinese language, he proposed that greater efforts should be made to promote Chinese education in overseas local communities and societies and greater importance should be attached to Chinese language empowerment.

Yang said that BFSU is also working to build a global language service platform to help promote international cultural exchanges and multi-level civilization dialogues, especially in the disciplines of regional and country studies, international communication and international organizations.

More than 100 people, including diplomats and representatives of international institutions stationed in China, as well as representatives of domestic universities, government departments and social groups attended the opening ceremony. It was organized by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation under the Ministry of Education.

International Chinese Language Day has been held for four consecutive years as a festival for the global Chinese education community. To mark the event, the United Nations and UNESCO have held several celebrations and more than 1,500 activities are expected to be launched by embassies and Chinese language learning institutions in over 140 countries.

Participants in the high-end forum on civilization dialogues between China and the Gulf countries pose for a group photo. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn]

On the same day, a high-end forum on civilization dialogues between China and the Gulf countries was also held, aiming at enhancing practical cooperation and discussing methods for building a bilingual library for cultural exchanges and mutual learning between China and the Gulf countries.