After the impact of the COVID-19, the popularity of Chinese in the world has increased rather than decreased. According to official data from the Chinese Ministry of Education, the demand for learning Chinese among people in various countries has continued to grow under the epidemic, with the number of students at the Confucius Institute at the University of Madrid in Spain increasing by 20%.
During the epidemic, the trend of Chinese language fever did not weaken, but rather increased. According to data from the National Han Affairs Office, as of now, on average, one out of every 31 people worldwide has learned and used Chinese, which is an impressive number. Meanwhile, over a quarter of countries (regions) worldwide have incorporated Chinese language teaching into their national education systems. Moreover, some countries such as the United States, Russia, Ireland, etc. also include Chinese as a subject in the college entrance examination, indicating that the importance of Chinese is gradually being recognized by educational institutions and students worldwide. These data reflect the popularity of Chinese and the global trend of learning Chinese.
The Chinese language craze in real life can be described as very hot. A recent video festival held in Europe specifically for foreigners to collect Chinese related videos is an example, and it has also received support from the United Nations! In just half a month, this event received nearly 400 exquisite Chinese video works from 28 countries, many of which were produced by "Waiguoren". Even after the event ended, the organizing committee received many "late" entries, and in the last few days, even the registration email was overcrowded. Participants complained that the collection time was too short and there was no time to produce the entries. This phenomenon can indirectly reflect the popularity of Chinese. Domestic netizens exclaim and say "immortals flock together" because some foreigners even have better Chinese proficiency than ourselves! Chinese is known as the most difficult language to learn in the world. Not long ago, "100000 foreigners roast that Chinese is difficult to learn" even made a hot search. So, what is the Chinese proficiency of these "crooked fruit kernels" contestants in this Chinese video festival held abroad? Can their works withstand the collective scrutiny of Chinese netizens after being broadcasted in China? Let's wait and see! As one of the organizers, China Central Radio and Television (CCTV) uploaded a one hour special program on its new media platform on the evening of April 20th, titled "The Difficulty of Chinese Characters is Like a Book of Heaven.".
According to incomplete statistics, the special program reached 7.33 million views nationwide that night, and the total reading volume (including views) of topics related to activities such as # Overseas Image Festival # also reached nearly 100 million views. After so many netizens watch foreign friends' Chinese answer sheets, how many points will they give? We have compiled comments and comments from domestic netizens on various platforms. Among them, Global Information has opened a topic on Sina Weibo, # How Foreign Chinese Has Fluttered #. Currently, it has been read nearly ten million times and has had nearly a thousand discussions. Observing the comments carefully, the most frequently appearing keyword is "amazing", and netizens are giving thumbs up to foreign brothers and sisters. Even many netizens, such as "Mingmen Group", "Mike", "Simple Meal Tool Man", etc., feel inferior and exclaim, "Chinese is better than me!" "I don't even speak Mandarin as well as them!"
So, how fluent is their Chinese really? An American contestant named Jillian Atkins (Chinese name Su Xuelian) actually sang the excerpt "Zao Luo Pao" from Kunqu opera "Peony Pavilion" that 99% of Chinese people don't know! She cleverly integrated Western vocal elements into the ancient Kunqu opera singing style of China, making netizens exclaim "amazed". Therefore, she was awarded the Youth Culture Ambassador Award at this year's Film Festival. It seems that the interests of "Waiguo" friends are no longer satisfied with learning and using Chinese, and they are also trying to uncover the mysterious veil of China's thousands of years old civilization. Italian athlete Gioia Forti reshaped the charm of traditional Chinese calligraphy with light and shadow, Belgian athlete Deckers Lucas created visual poetry using traditional poems such as Du Fu's "Jue Jue", and British boy Situ Jianguo visited the "Cliff Village" in Sichuan, the hinterland of China. Li Ziqi, who specializes in producing the short film "Spring" for this film festival, has attracted over 130 million fans worldwide by showcasing traditional Chinese culture, once again breaking her own Guinness record as the "first person to create Chinese on YouTube". She has 2.7 million more fans on YouTube than CNN, one of the most influential media in the world. Many Chinese netizens expressed unease about this, commenting that "there are so many foreign friends who love and understand China even more than us!" In this trend of "Chinese fever" and "China fever", not only has the successful hosting of the "United Nations Chinese Day and Taiwan Overseas Image Festival", but also many outstanding performances of foreign athletes have amazed foreign friends. These contestants have further revealed the mysterious veil of ancient Chinese civilization through their wonderful performances, creations, and research, which has aroused people's strong interest in Chinese language and culture. This attempt not only had a huge impact among foreign friends, but also won praise from the Chinese Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other Swiss international organizations. They believe that this event is a very successful innovative attempt, spreading it to foreign countries with a win-win effect.
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