Last year, a total of 36,350 foreigners went to Taiwan to learn Chinese, soaring for two consecutive years by more than 30 %, surpassing the peak before the epidemic.

With the deepening of the strategic competition between China and the United States and the recovery of tourism after the crown disease epidemic, more foreigners have also appeared in Taiwan to learn Chinese.

Among them, Liu Mengqi, the second leader of the Ministry of Education of Taiwan, led a group to the United States to participate in the senior dialogue between the United States to participate in the Taiwan -US Education Initiative on March 4 that American students went to Taiwan to study a record high in Taiwan this year, with a total of 3080 people.The Ministry of Education of Taiwan also selected 147 Chinese teachers and teaching assistants to teach Chinese from 56 American universities.

The latest data obtained from the Ministry of Education of Lianhe Zaobao showed that last year, a total of 36,350 foreigners went to Taiwan to learn Chinese. Compared with the 27,808 and 245 people in the previous two years, it has soared by 30.7%and respectively.38%.Compared with the 30,457 people in the highest peak in 2019 before the epidemic, it will increase by 12%.

On the other hand, the number of foreigners who have learned Chinese in mainland China in recent years have not clearly.Surging News reported that in 2016, 443,000 foreigners went to study in China, of which 38.2%learned Chinese (the usage of the mainland), and converted about 169,000 foreigners to Chinese language.

From 2017 to the present, the number of foreigners has not been found on the Internet.However, there are educational WeChat public account quoted the quality report of undergraduate teaching in ordinary universities across the country that the number of colleges and universities in mainland China in 2020 recruited the numberInternational education and Chinese language and literature are ranked seventh and eighth, respectively.

British boys: 90 % of students go to Taiwan to learn Chinese

In response to the needs of foreigners to learn Chinese, many universities in Taiwan have set up Chinese language teaching centers that serve foreign students. Taking the Chinese Literature Teaching Center of Politics in Taipei as an example, last year attracted 1041 students from 69 countries.Including 131 Japanese, 108 Koreans, 99 Thai and 95 Americans.

This newspaper visited on March 6 and found that the center was made in small classes, and teachers and students interacted with enthusiasm. The eight students in the class came from five countries, including Britain, South Korea, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Bai Jingxuan (Ben, 22) from the British Leeds said that he has studied Chinese language for a year at a university in British. Among his students who continue to study Chinese abroad, 90 % are like him to Taiwan.mainland.He said he liked Taiwan's learning environment, but he also considered traveling to the mainland in the future.

Li Weizhou (23 years old), who has just graduated from the Chinese Department of the University of Thailand, said that he is interested in the beauty of the pictograph of traditional Chinese and hopes to use more Chinese language in life.He is grateful to the Taiwan government for six months of scholarships, and also hopes to stay in Taiwan to find Chinese -related work.

Zhang Xulun, a teacher at the Zhengdahua Language Center, who has taught Chinese for more than 30 years, said that foreign parents are very assured that their children can learn Chinese in Taiwan. Teachers and students in the classroom are spoken and discussed.Fluent Chinese, "I like to teach such students very much."

Two -hand strategy of Warm and Soft and Sky

Yang Hao, a professor at the East Asian Institute and Director of the Chinese Language Center of the University of Politics, pointed out in an interview with Lianhe Morning Post that in recent years, Taiwan has attracted foreign students to Taiwan in Taiwan with "warm strength".", Create the atmosphere of free learning Chinese and natural learning bilingual.

Yang Hao said that over the past ten years, the world has set off Chinese fever or Chinese fever, which has enhanced the world's interest in the Chinese market, Chinese culture, and business exchanges with Chinese society, and has increased the huge needs of Chinese language learning.

He mentioned that with the intensification of Chinese and American competition in recent years, Chinese teaching has been regarded as strategic supplies.Taking the Confucius Institute with the mission of promoting language and culture in mainland China as an example, the National Democratic Foundation in 2017 regarded it as a negative example of Beijing's "sharp strength" for expanding the influence of authoritarian authority.In 2020, the U.S. State Department determined that the Confucius Institute was a foreign ambassador, and the US Department of Defense also banned subsidies to universities that opened Confucius Institutes.The number of Confucius Institutes across the United States today has been reduced from 110 to five.

In July last year, the Language Flagship led by the US Department of Defense opened a Taiwan center at the University of Political Science, established partnership with the Chinese Literature Center, and also borrowed the center classroom.This plan is a talent who is proficient in language such as Chinese and Russian. After obtaining certifications in 13 American universities, it will study overseas in the last year.In the past, the Chinese pilot plan was sent to Shanghai, transferred to Taiwan in 2019, and set up the first Taiwan center in Taiwan University.

Yang Hao said that in the environment of deteriorating relations between Washington and Beijing, Taiwan cannot be overly optimistic. It must highlight Taiwan's advantages in the crisis, such as free and transparent teaching, developed semiconductor technology to develop more trendArtificial Intelligence (AI) Chinese teaching method.For example, some people have designed interesting teaching tools. When AI scores in karaoke Chinese songs, they will generate comics by AI after writing diaries to enhance language learning interest.

Professor Ding Shufan, chairman of the Taiwan Higher Policy Research Association, said in an interview with Lianhe Morning Post that more foreigners go to Taiwan to study Chinese in Taiwan, which will strengthen the voices of the international community's favor, sympathy and advocating the government to communicate with Taiwan.But returning to reality, sympathy and verbal support will not be transformed into diplomatic recognition; if it can be transformed into specific favorable economic, trade and scientific and technological assistance to Taiwan, it is more practical in the short term.

Ding Shufan bluntly stated that the number of Chinese people in Taiwan has soared year by year. In the long run, it may strengthen the international power of the international Taiwan.If Taiwan wants to improve security, it is still necessary to operate the effective deterrence of hard and hard hands, including strengthening military strength and making appropriate statements of the call of freezing Taiwan independence.