Mr. Antonio Pedro, Acting Executive Secretary of UNECA,
Your Excellencies Ambassadors,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
Good morning!
It gives me great pleasure to gather with you on the celebration of “United Nations Chinese Language Day” in 2023. First of all, I would like to thank the UNECA for initiating and co-hosting this event, and highly appreciate UNECA for promoting language equality and cultural diversity in international affairs. I would also like to thank the Confucius Institute and the Chinese Medical Team to Ethiopia for their strong support to this event.
“Grain Rain” is the 6th of the 24 solar terms, and the last solar term of spring. It embodies the beauty when spring turns to summer, and represents the growth of all things. It is said that on this day, Chinese characters were created by Cang Jie. Therefore, the UN chose “Grain Rain” as Chinese Language Day. Chinese is used by the largest population in the world and one of the six working languages of the UN. The use of Chinese language has since ensured the effective work of the UN, and has also promoted cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and countries around the world.
Language is the carrier of human civilization. As one of the languages with the longest history, the most elegant structure and the deepest ideological connotation in the world, the Chinese language is attracting more and more global friends to explore and feel the essence of the profound Chinese culture behind it. China is actively engaged in cooperation with other countries, Confucius Institutes and Classrooms have been set up in 159 countries, among which more than 70 Confucius Institutes and Classrooms have been established in African countries. According to statistics, more than 30 million people are learning Chinese outside China, and the total number of foreign Chinese learners is close to 200 million. In Africa, 17 countries have included Chinese language in their education system, over 600 thousand African people are using or learning Chinese. The learning and use of Chinese serve as a bridge of mutual learning between civilizations, allowing more and more friends all around the world to feel the beauty of poetry in Tang and Song Dynasty, the profound philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine, the rapid development of China, and find the key to the success of Chinese path to modernization.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
A single flower does not make spring, while one hundred flowers in full blossom bring spring to the garden. As the future of all countries are closely connected, tolerance, coexistence, exchanges and mutual learning among different civilizations play an irreplaceable role in advancing humanity’s modernization process and making the garden of world civilizations flourish. Recently, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Civilization Initiative, which advocates the respect for the diversity of civilizations, the common values of humanity, the importance of inheritance and innovation of civilizations, and robust international people-to-people exchanges and cooperation. Both China and Africa have a long historical civilization as well as rich cultural and artistic resources. Various and colorful cultural exchange activities will surely enhance people-to-people bonds between China and Africa and lay a solid foundation for cooperation. We hope that more African friends could further experience Chinese traditional culture and understand Chinese path to modernization through this Chinese Language Day event. We are willing to work with all African friends to write a new chapter for the mutual learning of Chinese and African civilizations in the new era as well as the building of a China-Africa community with a shared future!
Finally, I wish this event a complete success!
Thank you.