Wen Shows Delhi Students His Calligraphy Skills as India Masters Mandarin -15/12/10

Wen Shows Delhi Students His Calligraphy Skills as India Masters Mandarin


Dipping a brush in black ink before tracing Chinese characters on white paper, Premier Wen Jiabao used the ancient art of calligraphy to send a message of modern friendship to students in the Indian capital.

After a speech to business leaders in which he detailed $16 billion of corporate deals between the Asian giants, Wen visited south Delhi’s Tagore International School where he spent 50 minutes discussing the two countries’ relationship and their economic rise. “Friendship between China and India,” he wrote in foot-high figures before signing his name.

“He was very down to earth,” said Vatsala Pant, 16, one of 27 students to meet Wen, which had been specially decorated with Chinese dragons, red ribbons and the flags of India and China. “The interaction was very personal.”

Wen’s school visit comes at a time when Indian interest in learning Mandarin is growing as it seeks closer ties with the world’s fastest growing economy. All state secondary school pupils will have the option of learning the language from next year, reflecting the government’s effort to boost relations between the world’s two most populous nations.

Wen donated 1,000 books, DVDs and CDs as Mandarin teaching material to the school named after the Indian novelist, poet and artist Rabindranath Tagore. The Chinese leader shook hands with each of the children and posed for photographs.

“He said Chinese people respect India a lot because our economy has grown in such a short period of time,” said Tushar Rawal, 17, the school’s head boy.

Mandarin Lessons

In the world of business, India has long benefited from its large English-speaking population. Now as China’s economy surges, the government is encouraging its population to learn Mandarin, spoken by about 1 billion people, according to the CIA Factbook.

Annual bilateral trade between India and China is expected to reach $60 billion this year. Wen vowed today to reduce the $18 billion surplus in bilateral commerce that China has built.

India’s Central Board of Secondary Education said this month Chinese classes will be on the curriculum for students aged 12 and above from April. Learning Mandarin has previously only been an option for college students or those at specialized schools such as Tagore International.

For the last two years, students at Tagore International in Delhi’s Vasant Vihar area have taken part in a cultural exchange with the Jinyuan Senior High School in Shanghai. Each Thursday, the Indian students give instruction in yoga via videoconferencing; on Fridays the Chinese pupils give calligraphy lessons.

Teacher Quest

“For my students who may end up in any field later in life, learning Mandarin will be an asset,” said Madhulika Sen, the school’s principal. “It will give them an edge. Any language you can learn is an asset, but particularly Mandarin because China is an emerging superpower.”

The biggest challenge for India to meet its goal of increasing Mandarin speakers will be finding qualified teachers, according to Varaprasad Sekhar, associate professor in Chinese studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

“It is going to be an enormous challenge, no doubt,” said Sekhar, who teaches courses on Chinese history and was a fellow at Peking University in Beijing in 2004. “There are not many Mandarin speakers in India and many end up working at multinational companies. Most don’t go into teaching.”

The visit to the school marked the official end of Wen’s first day in India since 2005. Tomorrow he will hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew Macaskill in New Delhi at amacaskill@bloomberg.net; Subramaniam Sharma in New Delhi at ssharma@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bill Austin at billaustin@bloomberg.net