The belt and road isn’t just re-routing investment, but also foreign language instruction in China

As China eyes partnerships across Asia, Oceania, Europe and Africa, new majors have sprung up at the country’s venerable institutions of foreign-language instruction

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Chinese residents of Italy wave Chinese and Italian flags as they wait for the arrival of Xi Jinping in Rome on March 22. China has long viewed language instruction as a necessary component for achieving diplomacy and trade goals, and the Belt and Road Initiative has resulted in a wave of new languages as majors. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 10:30am, 27 May 2019Updated: 10:30am, 27 May 2019

China is well-known for producing top-tier talent in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) through its rigorous national education system. But President Xi Jinping’s “Belt and Road Initiative”, a multi-trillion-dollar project to spread infrastructure development and investment initiatives from East Asia to Europe and parts of Africa, heralds a changing landscape in higher education, as specialised universities work to meet new national needs.

While comprehensive universities such as Peking and Tsinghua University adopted the Western model, wherein students specialise in a major while taking electives before graduation, unique to Chinese higher education are universities explicitly devoted to foreign languages and cultures.

Prominent examples include Beijing Foreign Studies University, Shanghai International Studies University and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, allowing students from undergraduate to doctoral levels to focus on foreign language study.

These schools were founded by the Chinese government in the mid-20th century to increase international cooperation. Beijing Foreign Studies University is the former School of Russian at the Chinese People’s Anti-Japanese Military and Political College, established by Mao Zedong in 1941 to strengthen ties with the Soviet Union. It became the Yanan Foreign Languages School in 1944 after English was added to the curriculum.

Though the institution closed in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution, it has experienced a surge in students studying English since it reopened in 1977. A special department dedicated to training translators for the United Nations was created in 1983.

Students at the Beijing Foreign Studies University have a variety of new languages they can choose to specialise in, thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative’s needs. Photo: BFSU

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