Zheng Chengjun, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Beijing International Studies University (BISU) Committee and vice-president of the university, led a delegation to St. Louis in the United States to attend the 2024 Annual Conference of Chinese Language Teachers Association, USA (CLTA) from April 4 to 9.
Zheng delivered a keynote speech at a forum of the annual conference on April 5. He introduced the origin and significance of "Chinese + Tourism" and presented BISU's efforts to promote "Chinese +Tourism", including the cooperation between BISU and UN Tourism, and the tourism departments and Confucius Institutes of Panama and Morocco.
Zheng introduced BISU's theoretical research on "Chinese + Tourism", using the theory of Dell Hymes and Noam Chomsky. He also mentioned the urgency of establishing an evaluation system for tourism purveyors.
He emphasized that BISU will strengthen talent cultivation, scientific research and discipline and platform construction. He expected more cooperation between the university and experts, scholars, and teachers in universities, primary and middle schools and various educational institutions in the US.
Zheng met with Liang Xia, president of the CLTA, after the meeting to discuss further cooperation between the two institutions. Zheng gifted BISU's cultural and creative products to CLTA.
Zheng also met and had in-depth exchanges with scholars and delegations from various American universities, such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton, exploring the possibility of establishing a series of "Chinese Plus" cooperation projects.
Song Qiang, secretary of the General Party Branch of the School of International Education of Chinese Language, and Wu Jianshe, a professor at the School of English Language, Literature and Culture, also participated in the annual conference. In the sub-forum, Wu made a presentation about Chat GPT-assisted teaching. Song introduced the projects of "Study in China" and "Study in BISU".
Zheng visited Columbia University in New York on April 8, met with Gray Tuttle, chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and gave a lecture to the students of the Advanced Business Chinese Course of Columbia University.
He introduced BISU's "Chinese + Tourism" and elaborated on a number of China's entry facilitation measures, and welcomed the students of Columbia University to come to China for study and tourism.
The CLTA, a renowned organization for Chinese language teachers and researchers in the US, is committed to promoting the study of the Chinese language and culture. Its annual conference attracts Chinese language teachers from all over the world.
