On November 26, the China-Kyrgyzstan Bilateral International Chinese Language Education Seminar was held at the Minglun Campus of Henan University (HENU). The Seminar was attended by more than 100 experts and scholars from more than 20 universities at home and abroad, as well as teachers and students. They came together for in-depth discussions on the “Belt and Road” initiative and international Chinese education.

The opening ceremony was attended by Keping Lu, secretary of the Party Committee of HENU, Yinghua Zhong, president of the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching, Yongbo Song, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the Center for Language Education and Cooperation of the Ministry of Education, Sadykov Kanat, former chancellor of the Kyrgyz National University, and Hengzhen Xu, second-level inspector of the Department of Education of Henan Province, who also gave speeches at the ceremony. The opening ceremony was presided over by Xiangdong Zhang, vice president of HENU.

At the meeting, Keping Lu extended a warm welcome to all leaders, experts and guests on behalf of HENU and introduced the development of HENU’s international Chinese education. He pointed out that the key to promoting international Chinese education is to build a group of professional teachers and to cultivate international Chinese education talents with cross-cultural communication capabilities.

Yinghua Zhong pointed out that the establishment of the Henan University - Kyrgyz National University Silk Road Institute marks a new milestone in educational cooperation between the two countries, which represents further progress for international Chinese education in the Belt and Road initiative.

Yongbo Song put forward that the institution should learn more about the needs of Chinese education in foreign countries, strengthen cooperation with relevant countries, and conduct research and practice in the application of informatization, digitalization, and intelligent technologies to promote the teaching of Chinese.

Sadykov Kanat delivered a speech and pointed out that the Kyrgyz people have a stronger interest in learning Chinese and regard Chinese as an important skill in work. He suggested strengthening cooperation between universities so as to advance Chinese language learning and promote economic cooperation and language development between the two countries.

Hengzhen Xu affirmed HENU’s achievements in external education. He pointed out that Henan’s international Chinese education would be learner-centered, strengthen subject integration and talent training, and shape a new pattern of international Chinese education in Henan Province.

The Seminar included a main venue and three sub-venues. At the main venue, 9 experts and scholars gave keynote reports, including Professor Yinghua Zhong, Professor Iusupov Rashid, Professor Jun Ye, Professor Yingcheng Wu, Professor Zhen Tan, and Professor Shisyr Iskhar. They shared multiple perspectives on opportunities and challenges for the development of international Chinese education in the “Belt and Road” region. At the Seminar, representatives from many universities actively exchanged with each other, discussing their experiences and insights in international Chinese education promotion, cross-cultural exchanges, and language teaching methods.