Feature: For Saudi youth, learning Chinese is a crucial path to cultural understanding
RIYADH, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Under the bright sunlight of Jeddah, red Chinese knots swayed in the breeze, national flags fluttered, and the melodic notes of the guzheng filled the auditorium at King Abdulaziz University (KAU). The air rang with cheerful greetings -- "Nihao!" and "I love China!" -- as Saudi students welcomed visitors in Mandarin.
On May 27, the Saudi finals of the "Chinese Bridge" Chinese proficiency competition for foreign college and secondary school students began in this coastal city, coinciding with the 35th anniversary of China-Saudi diplomatic ties and the ongoing China-Saudi Cultural Year.
For the first time, the event featured a dedicated middle school division, drawing 15 university and 15 secondary school participants from across the kingdom.
"Learning Chinese is a journey of growth, with both sweet and bitter moments," said Meshari Almutairi, a student from the KAU. "Chinese characters looked like paintings when I first started. But I kept going. I believe this 'key' will one day open the door to truly understanding China."
Among the most inspiring performances came from Ahmed Alarishi, a visually impaired university student. "I love the Tang and Han dynasties. I learn by listening to documentaries and talking with Chinese friends," he said. Using auditory tools and Pinyin, Ahmed taught himself Mandarin. "It's not that difficult. You just need time and dedication."
Alarishi's recital was followed by a performance of Baduanjin, a traditional Chinese fitness routine, which brought the audience to its feet. "Understanding a culture brings you closer to the soul," he said. "Chinese is my window to the world."
"Ahmed is one of our most dedicated students. His love for learning drives him to overcome every challenge," said his instructor Zhang Wenyi. The student spent two months preparing for the event, and he aspires to pursue his master's and doctoral studies in China, aiming for a future in academia.
The growing interest in Mandarin reflects a wider trend. Since 2023, over 100 Saudi middle schools have introduced Chinese courses.
Wang Junbao, a Chinese teacher in Riyadh with teaching experience across Africa, South Asia and Latin America, said Saudi students are increasingly fluent not just in Mandarin, but in expressing their hopes through it. "They're drawn to Chinese culture," he said. "Their curiosity is sincere."
Zhang Xinying, director of the Confucius Institute at Prince Sultan University, echoed the sentiment. "In the eyes of many Saudis, Chinese is not just a language -- it's a life skill," she said. "As China-Saudi cooperation deepens, Mandarin is becoming a strategic tool for the next generation."
For students like Saba Anwar from Al-Brayan Model School in Jeddah, the motivation is clear. "I hope to work for a Chinese company someday," she said. "I see more Chinese firms building roads, ports and factories here. Learning Chinese will help me find a good job."
Quoting a well-known Arab proverb, Wang Qimin, Chinese Consul General in Jeddah, said, "'Seek knowledge, even as far as China,' -- Saudi youth are now living that wisdom, using Chinese as a bridge to build lasting ties."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
New York museum showcases past, future of Milky Way with new space show
NEW YORK, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The American Museum of Natural History in New York City is launching a new space show to present the story of cosmic motion and how that impacts the solar system, offering a journey through the history and future of the Milky Way galaxy. Titled "Encounters in the Milky Way," the immersive show will open to the public on June 9. As the 7th space show from the museum's Hayden Planetarium, it has been developed by a team of astronomers, scientific visualization experts, and artists, and designed to explore the dynamic movements of the universe, tracing the Milky Way's past over billions of years and projecting its future across millions more. The space show is presented in a theater equipped with a high-resolution projection system and immersive sound, giving the audience the sensation of traveling through space and experiencing the galaxy up close. The show has been particularly supported by the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, also called the "billion-star survey," a project aimed at mapping the precise positions, distances, and motions of nearly 2 billion stars in the Milky Way, according to Jackie Faherty, curator of the show. "Gaia dropped a map that all humans should be proud of," said Faherty at a media preview event on Tuesday. "We mapped the cosmos in a way, and the Milky Way really is the star of it, in a way we had never been able to do before," she added. The vast amount of detailed star movement data provides an unparalleled visual experience, including some brand-new experiences, such as the first visualization of the dramatic and ongoing merger of the Milky Way with smaller satellite galaxies. The production team spent approximately one and a half years creating this 25-minute show. Six months were primarily spent searching for data sets, developing outlines and methods, recruiting staff, and developing technical processes, followed by a year or more of production, according to Vivian Trakinski, producer of the show and the director of science visualization of the museum. "This show has more simulation data than our past shows. We have a new sound system in the dome, which is composed of 34 speakers, which was a great opportunity to specialize the motion that we present in the show. So in that way, it's much richer and more sophisticated. So it's definitely a continuation of our tradition, but there are things that make it unique," Trakinski told Xinhua. The program is expected to be screened at the museum for about three years. Faherty expressed the hope that the space show as an introduction to the globe and the map of the cosmos would lead people to explore the data available to everybody, make discoveries and walk away wanting to be scientists. To date, the museum's space shows have been seen by more than 15 million visitors and have been distributed to 160 institutions across 40 countries worldwide, according to a release by the American Museum of Natural History, which is one of the world's most distinguished scientific and cultural institutions, with a history of more than 120 years.
The Star
6 hours ago
- The Star
Huge 400-pound alligator captured in U.S. N. Carolina on "suspicion of being dinosaur"
NEW YORK, June 3 (Xinhua) -- "Pepe the Gator," weighing almost 400 pounds and measuring 10 feet in length, was caught loitering off the pavement in Jacksonville, North Carolina, with witnesses saying that "he was just chilling and snapping (and) clearly ignoring the 'no loitering or lounging on roadways' sign," Onslow County Sheriff's Office said in a post on Facebook on Tuesday. The prehistoric perp "has been cited for Suspicion of Being a Dinosaur without Proper Papers, Public Loitering with Intent to Sunbathe, and Obstructing Traffic," the sheriff's office said. Pepe was eventually captured and taken to a boat ramp on Camp Geiger, a few miles away, and released back into the wild the same day, USA Today quoted sheriff's office spokesperson Trevor Dunnell as saying. No injuries were reported, except for Pepe's pride when he "refused to be cuffed," authorities said. American alligators occur naturally in North Carolina, according to North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, and can be found inhabiting bay lakes, rivers, creeks, marshes, swamps and ponds. The state is the "northern extent of the alligator's range and they generally become less common as you move from south to north along the NC coast," says the wildlife commission.
The Star
7 hours ago
- The Star
Russia supplies 32 pct of global diamond in 2024
MOSCOW, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Russia exported 30.37 million carats of diamonds in 2024, a 6.3 percent decline in comparison to the previous year, according to the data released by the Kimberley Process, an international diamond certification scheme. Revenues from diamond exports fell by 29 percent in 2024 to 2.62 billion U.S. dollars from 3.68 billion dollars in 2023, according to the statistics. Russia produced 37.32 million carats of diamonds in 2024, maintaining the same output as in the previous year. Russia accounted for 32 percent of global diamond supply last year, while Botswana accounted for 24 percent, Angola 12 percent, and Canada 11 percent. Among the largest exporters of diamonds were the United Arab Emirates with a 30 percent share in global supplies, the European Union with 14 percent, and Russia with 11 percent. India was the largest importer of diamonds in 2024, according to TASS. In an interview with RIA Novosti, Alexey Kalachev, an analyst at Russian financial services company Finam, noted that Western sanctions have had little impact on Russian diamond exports last year, and attributed the decline to a crisis in the global diamond market. He believes that if the sanctions had worked, diamond prices would have increased due to global shortages. He said that the 29 percent drop in export revenues was in part due to a decline in shipments and lower global prices. The Kimberley Process was established in 2000 in South Africa. Its participants are countries producing and importing diamonds, which set the goal of removing "conflict" diamonds used for arms and support of anti-government and terrorist organizations from being traded internationally and ensure transparency in the global diamond market. The Kimberley Process ensures control over export-import operations, covering up to 99 percent of global turnover of diamonds.
