English school gifted with Chinese books

A delegation from China's largest publishing group donated Chinese-language instruction books to Bohunt School in Liphook, Hampshire on Monday.

It is the second time the China Publishing Group Corp has visited the school. In April last year, the publishing giant gave the students more than 100 books.

This year, the delegation brought along more textbooks and reference books on Chinese learning and on China's history, culture and also some classic children's stories.

Bohunt was the first school to offer immersion courses in Mandarin to students.

Jiang Jun, vice-president of CPG, said: "I am very fortunate to represent CPG in visiting Bohunt School at this special occasion of the 45th anniversary of Sino-UK ministerial-level diplomatic ties.

"I hope these newer and up-to-date books we have brought along will help British students learn and understand China better," Jiang added, "These exchanges between CPG and Bohunt School can lead to deeper and more frequent levels of cooperation."

After the book donation, special guest Cecilia Lindqvist, a Swedish sinologist, gave a lecture on "the beauty of Chinese characters" to a group of students. Lindqvist spoke about the origins of Chinese ideographs and how it became the written characters still used in China today.

Sinology is the academic study of China primarily through Chinese language, literature, culture and history.

Jiang also said he hopes that the exchanges will help inspire students to become future sinologists.

Raymond Morton, chairman of the governing body of Bohunt School, stressed the importance of learning Mandarin, "No doubt the biggest market is in China, and the UK needs to be able to trade with China. It is an important step in not just learning the language but also understanding the Chinese culture."

Morton noted the need to "be able to talk to trading partners directly rather than through an interpreter".

Bohunt School was featured in a BBC documentary that followed five Chinese teachers who taught 50 students for four weeks using Chinese teaching methods.

The secondary school has more than 1,650 students between the ages of 11 and 16, and 450 of them are learning Chinese.