On the morning of 22 November 22 2019, Xi’an RTVU Hantang Culture Online Academy held an opening ceremony for its third special cultural experience offline class and a signing ceremony for its field centre.
Relevant personnel from the Foreign Affairs Working Committee of Xi'an CPC Municipal Committee, Xi'an Overseas Chinese Federation, and Xi'an Education Bureau, and relevant leaders from Northwest University, Xi'an International Studies University, and other partnership universities attended the ceremony. The third batch of students of the Xi'an Hantang Cultural Online Academy from Italy, India, Thailand, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey, among others, attended the class opening ceremony.
Zhao Liling, deputy Party secretary and president of Xi’an RTVU, delivered a welcome speech on behalf of Xi’an RTVU. Xi’an Hantang Cultural Online Academy is one of the supportive measures enabling the Xi'an Municipal Government to implement the Belt and Road initiative. Over the past three years, the academy has made full use of the historical and cultural resources of Xi'an and Central Shaanxi to build the first online teaching platform (Xi'an Hantang Chinese Language Website) for Chinese as a foreign language in the northwest of China in response to the Belt and Road initiative. The platform has launched a high-quality online culture seminar that is compatible with online teaching resources and the in-depth development of offline cultural experience activities, creating a new "Internet + International Chinese Education” model. Today, the Belt and Road overseas student education field base set up with the cooperation of Xi'an RTVU, Guanzhong Folk Art Museum, and Xi'an Guanyao Art Co., Ltd. will also realise the establishment of a practical teaching base and the sharing of outstanding teaching resources to enhance teaching capacity, strengthen online and offline mixed teaching support service abilities, and build a new pattern for Xi’an RTVU's practice of teaching Chinese as a foreign language.
Zhao Liling said that Xi’an Hantang Cultural Online Academy will make full use of smart educational technology, high-quality higher education resources, and its rich distance education experience to continue to explore innovative teaching models that enable people who are interested in Chinese culture from around the world to enjoy convenient, economical, and diversified learning. She hopes that the students of Xi'an Hantang Cultural Online Academy will devote themselves to publicising Xi'an and Chinese culture and be happy messengers of cultural communication.
Xiao Wangmin, a member of the Party Group and vice chairman and secretary-general of Xi'an Overseas Chinese Federation, said that as an institution for serving overseas Chinese, returned overseas Chinese family members, and global Chinese learners, Xi’an Hantang Cultural Online Academy and the Xi'an Branch of the Huaqiao College of the OUC, relying on the OUC's distance education teaching advantages and advanced online technology, are helping to promote national development and social/cultural prosperity under the main development goals of the Overseas Chinese Federation.
Qiang Sheng, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Working Committee of the CPC Xi'an Municipal Committee, believes that Xi'an Hantang Cultural Online Academy relies on the distance education and teaching advantages of Xi'an RTVU to gradually transform the Belt and Road initiative from concept to action, providing a variety of learning channels for people who love Chinese language and culture, and playing a positive role in promoting mutual understanding between the people of Xi'an, China, and other countries.
Liu Ba, an oversea student representative of Xi'an Hantang Cultural Online Academy from the Russian Federation, delivered a speech. She said that it is a great honour for her to learn at Xi'an Hantang Cultural Online Academy. She believes that Hantang Chinese Language is a good platform for learning Chinese language, history, and culture. There are many great courses online that allow them to improve their Chinese language and learn more about Chinese culture.
At the signing ceremony for the offline activity field centre, Xi'an Guanyao Art Co., Ltd. and Xi'an Guanzhong Folk Art Museum signed cooperation agreements with Hantang Cultural Online Academy. After the ceremony, outstanding online students took classes at the field centre to exchange views on the online platform of the academy in the smart classroom of Xi'an RTVU. Participants said that the online learning model has broken free of the constraints of time and space, allowing them to immerse themselves in Chinese cultural knowledge.
Xi'an Hantang Cultural Online Academy is an important part of the Xi'an municipal government's Belt and Road Initiative construction and planning. The academy’s online platform, Xi’an Hantang Chinese Language Website, was officially launched on 22 November 2017, providing students with rich online course resources. Since the launch of the platform, the number of online students has increased significantly, growing from 1,000 to nearly 4,000 today. The students are spread across nearly 40 countries in five continents including Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, and Oceania.
By Li Xinran and Yao Hui, Xi’an RTVU