Opinion | Why downgrading English to boost China’s cultural confidence is a bad idea

Name: The ‘two sessions’ explained: China’s most important political meetings of the year
Uploaded: 2020-06-07T00:30:17.000Z
Duration: 3 min 35 s
Description: The ‘two sessions’ explained: China’s most important political meetings of the year

National People’s Congress delegates have questioned the prominence of English at press conferences and in schools in China

But at a time when Covid-19 is aggravating anti-Chinese sentiment, China should stay open to cultural exchange

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Simultaneous translation, in languages including English and French, is offered for a press conference given by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi via video link in Beijing on May 24. Photo: Xinhua

Lijia Zhang

Published: 8:30am, 7 Jun 2020Updated: 8:40am, 7 Jun 2020

Two proposals submitted to the National People’s Congress have sparked lively online debates, and both concern the role of English in China. One delegate, Yang Weiguo of Hunan, called for a cancellation of English translation at government press conferences, arguing that it was a way to promote Chinese culture and demonstrate China’s cultural confidence.

Another delegate, Tang Hailong of Beijing, who obviously adopted the same line of thinking as Mr Yang, proposed downgrading the importance of English as a school subject, so as to promote the dominance of Chinese as the country’s official language. Netizens oozing patriotism shouted their support, while others criticised the proposals as narrow-minded.

I am all for the promotion of Chinese culture and language, but I don’t understand why it can’t go hand in hand with learning English. Yet, I am not surprised by these proposals.

Last March, a heated debate about the relevance of English erupted after Hua Qianfang, a farmer turned writer, posted on Weibo that English is useless to most Chinese people and has “cost children their childhoods”. He also described keen students of English as “self-dwarfing slaves” to Western ideology.

I must beg to differ with Mr Hua and the two delegates.

03:35

The ‘two sessions’ explained: China’s most important political meetings of the year

For me, learning English has been life-changing. Born into a poor working-class family in Nanjing, I dreamt of becoming a writer. Sadly, when I turned 16, I was dragged out of school and put to work at a military factory that produced intercontinental missiles. There, I greased machine parts for a whole decade. As an escape route, I decided to teach myself English.

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