Recently, seven ministries and commissions, including the Ministry of Education, issued the "Opinions on Further Promoting the Inheritance and Development of Excellent Chinese Language and Culture and Improving the Language and Cultural Literacy of the Entire Population." The document supports universities in exploring the establishment of language science majors and implementing a "Strong Foundation Plan" for paleography, aiming to promote the discipline construction of paleography and cultivate top-notch innovative talents. This ensures that niche "esoteric studies," such as Oracle Bone Script, have dedicated practitioners and a continuous lineage.
The "Opinions" propose seven main tasks, covering areas such as promoting educational popularization, protecting and developing resources, and strengthening the talent pool. These measures are designed to foster the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent Chinese language and culture, while continuously enhancing the language and cultural literacy of the entire population, particularly the youth. The seven departments require all schools to innovate language and cultural education models by integrating excellent Chinese language and culture education into the moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor education system. It should be incorporated into ideological and political courses and curriculum-based ideological and political construction across universities, primary, and secondary schools, and integrated into the disciplinary, teaching, and management systems.
Primary and secondary schools should focus on effectively utilizing the language education elements within curricula and teaching materials, strengthening education in Mandarin and standardized Chinese character writing. They are encouraged to innovatively conduct special lectures, research and practice activities, and exhibitions and exchanges. Universities are to offer public courses such as College Chinese, Chinese Calligraphy, Digital Chinese, Digital Humanities, and Large Language Model technologies. The goal is to combine the cultivation of students' language and cultural literacy with the enhancement of their disciplinary professional capabilities, occupational competencies, and social adaptability.
The "Opinions" specify that key support will be given to the construction of the Chinese Language Resource Museum. It encourages qualified localities and institutions to reasonably utilize heritage buildings, industrial sites, and campus facilities to establish venues for language and cultural inheritance, such as language resource museums, language and script museums, and language culture parks. The document also encourages the creation of language and cultural landscapes in public spaces like urban and rural communities, transportation hubs, and national cultural parks, and advocates for the development of script and calligraphy resources, including the launch of themed tourism routes.
Regarding talent cultivation, the "Opinions" urge local authorities and schools to intensify efforts in language discipline construction. It supports the implementation of the paleography "Strong Foundation Plan" to promote the discipline's development and the training of top-notch innovative talent, ensuring that niche "esoteric studies" like Oracle Bone Script have practitioners and are passed down. The seven departments support universities in exploring the establishment of language science majors, promote the integration of language disciplines with related fields, and back qualified universities in exploring talent cultivation models that combine "professional skills + language ability + cross-cultural competence" to aid the "going global" of Chinese culture.
By 2030, a system for the inheritance and development of excellent Chinese language and culture is expected to be basically established. This system will achieve coordinated development in scientific interpretation, educational popularization, resource development, digital empowerment, team building, promotion and dissemination, and exchange and mutual learning. A mechanism for enhancing the language and cultural literacy of the entire population will also be largely formed, with a significant increase in the普及率 of basic language and cultural literacy nationwide.
By 2035, the inheritance and development of excellent Chinese language and culture, along with the level of全民语言文化素养, are projected to be全面提升. The capacity to serve the construction of a strong nation will be comprehensively enhanced.
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