With the development of China's economy, Chinese language
classes are flourishing all over the world; around 2,300
universities and 100 schools have added Chinese into their
curriculum, and 124 Confucius Institutes have been established
outside of China.
Meanwhile, in China, Shanghai has been criticized for using
English too much as most college students spend their time worrying
about the English test required before graduation. In contrast to
other countries, here the people's mother tongue is to some extent
ignored, or at least not as important as English in some people's
eyes.
When a student masters his mother tongue, it's natural to pursue
a second language. But Chinese, long deemed a fossil of history and
culture with 5,000 years of recorded use, and characters
representing unique symbolism, it's difficult to feel confident
enough to move on.
This is where Tu Sheng Interprets Chinese Characters
comes in. The new book promoting traditional Chinese culture,
recently published by the People's Daily Publishing House, had its
debut at the Great Hall of the People Wednesday afternoon.
Tu Sheng, or Li Tusheng, born in 1953, spent 30 years studying
traditional Chinese culture and is a regular lecturer at famous
universities in China and across the world. Some even call him one
of the only real living masters of Sinology.
The book, which took Li five years to research, carefully
selects 1,000 frequently used Chinese characters and interprets
them with two separate explanations:? the basic meaning of the
character and its internal cultural meaning. The characters are
divided into ten groups, covering politics, the economy, law, the
military, education, ethics, religion, architecture and others.
It is believed the book will serve as a guide for Chinese
characters among the many students learning the language across the
world, as well as a golden key for those inside China to decode
Chinese culture.
(CRI.com February 1, 2007)
