PR Newswire - When 210 million people learn Chinese, they see more than a language

BEIJING, Sept. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The following article was published today by China Daily.

In the past, it was widely agreed that Chinese was difficult to learn. Today, however, Chinese has a special appeal, and learning it feels like opening the door to a fresh new world. On TikTok, a video by Chinese American Sherry Zhu turned drinking hot water, wearing cotton slippers and brewing goji berries into a global trend, gaining her 740,000 followers in months. One user even memorized the character "呢" by breaking it into "o-p-t", to the delight of commenters. Chinese is moving from the classroom into everyday life worldwide. In many countries, even knowing Chinese can mean landing a well-paid job.

The numbers bear this out. According to China's Ministry of Education, 90 countries have incorporated Chinese into their national education systems, with nearly 210 million learners and users worldwide. In the first half of this year, 564,000 candidates sat for the Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK) globally, up 36 percent year on year.

Of course, economics is not the only driver. At this year's Chinese Bridge competition, Vietnam's Le Van Dai started with a self-study handbook, writing the character "我" a hundred times before Chinese poetry carried him all the way to the stage, "Tang and Song verse nourished my heart", he says.

Togo's Wang Jiayi discovered Chinese through martial artist Jackie Chan films, and later saw a different China in the TV series Meet Yourself — "those stories made my imagination of China more concrete day by day".

American contestant Ma Siwei calls himself a "challenge addict" who picked Chinese precisely because it is hard, teaching himself the bamboo flute and hulusi through online videos, and once performed Spring Festival Overture at a China-US concert.

Australia's Ava Gibbons visited China with her parents at the age of 12 and has studied the language for seven years. She performed a fish-lantern dance in hanfu and says the journey "closed the distance between me and China — not on the map, but between hearts".

Brazil's Song Yinuo stood on the Chinese Bridge stage for the first time, climbing the Great Wall and telling her teacher excitedly. For her, the competition was never just a contest but "real, vivid experiences" — "I came to know China through its language, met friends through conversation, and in each hands-on experience saw a bigger world and my own future".

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Chinese Bridge. Over the years, the competition has drawn Chinese-language enthusiasts from around the world. Right now, the secondary and primary school competitions are taking place in Tianjin, bringing together young people from over a hundred countries to make friends and see China through its language.

Twenty-five years ago, Chinese Bridge was just a competition. Today, it has become a phenomenon. When 210 million people learn Chinese, they are not merely absorbing grammar and vocabulary — they are encountering a China that is engaging with the world in ways both deep and daily. And through the eyes of these young people, China is being seen more clearly, and more truthfully, by the world.