The 5000 year long history has nurtured a colorful Chinese civilization. Chinese characters, as one of the most brilliant chapters, inherit the wonderful stories of the Chinese nation to various parts of the world. As of the end of 2022, over 180 countries and regions around the world are conducting Chinese education, 81 countries have incorporated Chinese into their national education systems, and nearly 200 million people overseas are learning and using Chinese.
Chinese traditional puzzle toys are collectively referred to as "Chinese Puzzle" - "Chinese Puzzle". Learning Chinese, which is known as the world's most challenging language, is not just a complex "Chinese puzzle"? Documentary produced by Shanghai Broadcasting and Television Station (SMG)Chinese Puzzle - I'm Learning Chinese in America will be broadcast on Oriental Satellite TV on Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival).
It is understood that the SMG Integrated Media Center's US reporting team lasted for more than half a year, traveling over 100000 kilometers, visiting dozens of cities in 15 states and interviewing more than 40 Americans who focus on Chinese language and culture. This film is also the first panoramic and systematic documentary to showcase the development, current situation, and changes of Chinese language teaching in the United States.
After Americans learn Chinese, they will form a new understanding of China. These gradually accumulated understandings will help to reverse biases, eliminate misunderstandings, and to what extent will they affect or even change the relationship between China and the United States. Behind the "Chinese fever" in the United States, there is also a new atmosphere of civil exchanges between China and the United States. The process of finding these answers is not only to explore the dissemination effects and channels of Chinese culture overseas, but also to think about how to further promote the healthy development of China US relations from the perspective of cultural exchange.
Currently, over 200000 schools across the United States, including primary and secondary schools and kindergartens, offer Chinese language instruction. There are approximately 400000 Americans learning Chinese. Among them, over 300 schools offer immersive Chinese language teaching. Especially in the past 20 years, there has been a significant increase in this number. From 2017 to 2018, 28 new schools were added; From 2018 to 2019, 31 new schools were added; Despite the impact of the epidemic, there were still 15 new schools added between 2019 and 2020.
The documentary connects individual stories and systematically outlines the development and changes of Chinese language in the United States since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. The panoramic presentation showcases the popularity, promotion, history, current situation, and prospects of Chinese in the United States, and explores the impact of learning Chinese on individuals, communities, schools, governments, and even Sino US relations. For example, Utah was the first state in the United States to legislate and promote bilingual education across the state, with bilingual options including Chinese, French, German, Spanish, and more. Initially, bilingual programs were primarily aimed at universities, and since 2008, they have expanded to primary and secondary schools. Up to now, more than 160 schools have joined the project, of which 93 have chosen the Chinese bilingual program. At least 15000 students across the state are learning Chinese.
In addition, Ohio State University has become the first university in the United States to establish a doctoral program in Chinese language education, and has successfully trained 25 doctoral students in Chinese education and hundreds of master's students. In the 21st century, the US government has also recognized the importance of Chinese language and has introduced multiple laws and projects at the federal government level to promote Chinese language education. These actions not only covered the states of Washington in the northwest to Georgia in the southeast, New York in the northeast to California in the southwest, but also Minnesota in the north and Texas in the south. The filming team travels across the country from north to south, east to west, and has footprints in 15 states and more than 20 cities.
The target audience of the documentary includes elementary school students aged eight or nine who have just learned Chinese for two or three years, as well as college students pursuing a master's or doctoral degree in Chinese or Chinese language teaching. In addition, we also follow former senators and officials from the Department of Education who are committed to promoting bilingual Chinese teaching throughout the state. There are also teachers who have lived and worked in China for many years and now return to the United States to teach Chinese and promote Chinese culture. We interviewed the president of an immersive Chinese language teaching school and university professors who have been specializing in Chinese language teaching methods for decades. We also recorded those business owners who married Chinese wives and were committed to promoting cultural exchange between China and the United States, as well as those self media singers who found Chinese boyfriends and worked hard to eliminate American prejudice against China. In addition, we also interviewed the heads of private organizations with a hundred year history who were the first to promote Chinese language and culture in the United States, as well as the first batch of American students to come to China after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. There is also a special group, namely deaf and mute American students learning Chinese sign language and their teachers.
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