The 5,000-year history has bred a colorful Chinese civilization. Chinese characters, as the most brilliant chapter among them, spread the splendor of the Chinese nation to the whole world. By the end of 2022, more than 180 countries and regions around the world will carry out Chinese education, 81 countries will incorporate Chinese into their national education systems, and nearly 200 million people overseas will learn and use Chinese.

Chinese Puzzle——"Chinese Puzzle" is the general name for traditional Chinese educational toys in the West. Tangram, Nine Links, Kong Mingsuo... Just like these toys, learning Chinese, which is known as the most difficult language in the world, is not a "Chinese puzzle"?

The documentary "Chinese Puzzle——I Learned Chinese in the United States" produced by Shanghai Radio and Television Station (SMG) will be broadcast on Dragon TV during the Lantern Festival on February 5.

"ChinesePuzzle - I Learn Chinese in America" Poster

It is understood that the U.S. reporting team of the SMG Financial Media Center spent more than half a year, traveled more than 100,000 kilometers, traveled to dozens of cities in 15 states in the United States, and successively interviewed and photographed more than 40 Americans who are deeply involved in Chinese and Chinese culture. The film is also the first panoramic and systematic documentary showing the history, current situation and changes of Chinese "teaching and learning" in the United States.

What new perceptions of China will Americans who have learned Chinese develop? To what extent will these accumulated cognitions, reversed prejudices, and eliminated misunderstandings affect or even change the relationship between China and the United States? Behind the "Chinese craze" in the United States, what new atmosphere of Sino-US non-governmental exchanges is revealed? The process of finding these answers is not only to explore the effects and channels of Chinese culture’s overseas dissemination, but also to think about how to further promote the sound development of Sino-US relations from the level of cultural exchanges.

Currently, more than 200,000 schools in the United States provide Chinese language teaching in primary and secondary schools and kindergartens, and about 400,000 Americans learn Chinese. Among them, more than 300 schools provide Chinese immersion teaching; especially in the past 20 years, the number has increased significantly. From 2017 to 2018, 28 new schools were added; from 2018 to 2019, 31 new schools were added; from 2019 to 2020, although affected by the epidemic, 15 new schools were added.

The documentary is a series of individual stories, and systematically sorts out the development and changes of Chinese in the United States since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. , the government, and even all aspects of Sino-US relations.

For example, Utah is the first state in the United States to legislate to promote bilingual education throughout the state. The bilingual options include Chinese, French, German, Spanish, etc. The bilingual program was initially aimed at universities, and began to cover elementary and junior high schools in 2008. Today, more than 160 schools have joined, 93 of which have chosen the Chinese bilingual program, and there are at least 15,000 students studying Chinese in the state.

In addition, the Ohio State University in the United States has opened the first doctoral program in Chinese teaching in the United States. So far, it has trained 25 Chinese education doctors and hundreds of master students.

Entering the 21st century, the U.S. government has also recognized the importance of the Chinese language, and initiated a number of bills and projects to promote Chinese education at the federal level.

From Washington State in the northwest to Georgia in the southeast, from New York in the northeast to California in the southwest, as well as Minnesota in the north and Texas in the south, the filming team traveled from north to south and from east to west, covering 15 states and more than 20 cities.

The subjects of the documentary are eight or nine-year-old elementary school students who have just learned Chinese for two or three years, as well as college students who are studying Chinese or Chinese language teaching masters and doctoral majors: both former senators and the Ministry of Education who are committed to promoting Chinese bilingual education throughout the state Officials, there are also teachers who have lived and worked in China for many years and now return to the United States to teach Chinese and promote Chinese culture. The subjects also include the principal of an immersion Chinese teaching school, a university professor who has studied Chinese teaching methods for decades, and married a Chinese daughter-in-law. Business owners who are now committed to promoting cultural exchanges between China and the United States, self-media singers who have found Chinese boyfriends to try to eliminate Americans’ prejudice against China, and directors of non-governmental organizations with a history of 100 years who were the first to promote Chinese and Chinese culture in the United States. The first batch of American students who came to China after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States...and a special group—American deaf-mute students learning Chinese sign language and their teachers.