Research on Chinese Cross-Culture Education under the Belt and Road Initiative

Li Zhongpeng, Zhou Chengcang

(School of Marxism,Qinghai University,Xining,Qinghai,810016)

Abstract: Under the international strategic background of the Belt and Road, China has increasingly established close partnership in trade and frequently make cultural exchanges with countries and regions along the Belt and Road. For the sake of Chinse enterprises, talents, non-governmental organizations better going global, other countries can get on the fast track of China’s rapid development, China should enhance the cross-cultural education and implement a deeper and higher-level cross-cultural education.Facing new great opportunities and challenges, China should enhance its talents and enterprises’ability of cross-cultural communication, and encourage people from other countries to exchange and study in China so as to learn engineering technology and scientific knowledge and improve their understanding of Chinese culture.Through the cross-cultural education, the international strategy of the Belt and Road Initiative will be better launched,and greatly benefit countries and regions along the road.

Keywords: The Belt and Road,cross-cultural education,reeducation

As general secretary Xi Jinping once said,“The relationship between two countries is based on the affection between two countries civilians.”The communication lies in the cultural integration; the cultural integration focuses on the language; the language focuses on the talent cultivation, and the talent training emphasizes the education[1].Education, especially the cross-cultural education plays a basic and precursory role in the construction of the Belt a nd Road. From this point of view, the implementation of the international strategy of the Belt and Road Initiative comes up with higher challenges to the cross-cultural education in our country, and provides unprecedented huge opportunities for cross-cultural education.Against this background,it’s necessary for China to regard cross-cultural re-education from a new perspective so as to make newcontributions tothe Belt and Road Initiative.

1 Connotation and Extension of Cross-cultural Education under the Belt and Road

UNESCO unveiled“The Function of Education on Cultural Development”in 1992, which put forward the concept of international education,pointed out that international education should be established for every student and citizens aiming to promote respect and understanding of cultural diversity, promote students into pluralistic culture and gaining academic success, and enhance international understanding involving teaching methods, teaching content, teacher training, and school and social interaction. It advocated that countries should strengthen regional and international cooperation so as to gain external assistance and support from national education systems.”[2]“The Education Dictionary”published in 1998 in China compiled the term“cross-cultural education”.The definition of cross-cultural education in this dictionary is:firstly, in multi-cultural context,implementing education with multiple cultures, or education of other cultures is mainly considered by one culture. Secondly, students who grow up in one culture receive education in another culture where the language, customs, habits, beliefs and values are different. Thirdly, China set up a cross-cultural environment for students to accept non-native language,customs,habits and values education.

From the authentic definition, cross-cultural education covers the following points.First of all, the subject of cross-cultural education is extensive including students, and all citizens, and under the background of the Belt and Road. The subject also includes people from other countries studying and working in China,and Chinese people who work and study in other countries. Secondly, the core of intercultural education is respect for cultural diversity. Some international guideline such as“the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”repeatedly mentioned that respect is the most important and most needed values and plays an important role in deepening understanding between cultures. It is not only important for human communication, but also for state-to-state exchanges between different cultures.China respect civilizations, and culture of different countries so that people can communicate with each other and learn from each other, and live in harmony with them.Without basic respect for cultures of other countries, there will exist misunderstanding, conflict and confrontation. The Christian fights against the Islamic in that they don’t respect each other’s culture.Based on the mutual respect,China and Belt and Road participating countries can carry out further cooperation projects in the future which is the most basic and most critical point.

Under the impact of the Belt and Road national strategy, the extension of intercultural education has been constantly enriched and developed, and the teaching methods, teaching contents, teacher training, school and social interaction involved in intercultural education have been enriched and developed. Taking the cultivation of intercultural communication ability of foreign students in China as an example, in teaching method, China should adopt a method that is willingly accepted by students from foreign countries and conducive to knowing Chinese culture. Some activities can be implemented such as Chinese students between overseas student’s fellowship activities, Chinese Proficiency Competition,and visit Chinese cultural relics,so as to make students interested in,and gradually integrated into the Chinese cultural environment. The one-way instillation method or wide publicity should not be used to install Chinese culture, which can lead to misunderstanding and disgust. In teaching contents,people should introduce China’s basic national conditions, political events, latest policy, reformation achievement, customs and habits, national characteristics to international students, which can make them have a basic understanding of China.And it’s necessary for people to show the new changes to international students so as to change their impression of China old stereotypes. In teaching training, teachers should have a profound cultural background and extensive knowledge of foreign culture, greatly control two different cultures in the process of teaching, be able to find singularities and in common between these two cultures, so that they can teach international students effectively. In terms of the interaction between school and society, the higher school should hold regular Study & Travel program to guide foreign students to visit famous cultural relics in China, such as revisiting the Silk Road and visiting key nodes of the Silk Road,so as to have a deeper understanding of Chinese culture.

2 Importance of Cross-cultural Education under the Belt and Road

2.1 Requirement of Building A Community of Human Destiny

The Chinese nation has always cherished higher ideals of the humanistic care, such as “All under heaven are of one family”, “The world belongs to all”, and “All men on earth are human brothers”fully reflect this point.At the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the dream of the Chinese people is closely related to the dreams of the people of other countries.China will always be a contributor to global development and a constructor to world peace, and a maintainer of international order. He indicated that people all over the world who live in the same blue planet, should jointly protect the beautiful homeland, help out members of our own families, and be deeply attached to each other.People all over the world should adhere to the concept of“One world”,open arms,understand each other, seek common ground while putting aside differences, and strive to build a community of human destiny together. Cross-cultural education is an indispensable part of building a Community of Common Destiny. Through cross-cultural education,various countries and regions, especially China and countries along the Belt and Road can better understand each other’s culture, history, nationality and other aspects, and enhance cultural exchanges.In the tide of economic globalization, countries and regions in the world are increasingly becoming a community of Shared future in which we are closely connected with each other. As a major international strategy of China, the Belt and Road Initiative is a practical action to build a community of common destiny for mankind. The cross-cultural education can promote the better implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative international strategy, and provide a solid cultural foundation for this strategy.

2.2 Requirement of Cultivating International Innovative Talents

Under the background of economic globalization, the scope and speed of resources and factor flow in various countries are increasing. The competition among enterprises, especially transnational enterprises, for a larger share of global market is becoming fierce. In order to actively integrate into globalization, China must optimize the allocation of resources on a global scale. Aiming to reach it, as the most important and valuable resources, human capital must be optimized in the global allocation.Therefore,China need to vigorously carry on the human capital investment including humanistic quality and business training. While the cross-cultural education can promote humanistic quality so as to make them know about other countries and regions of the world including the national or regional geographic information, values,customs, ideology and so on, so that our business personnel can work smoothly in other countries. And domestic enterprise can able to open the market as soon as possible and occupy share in another country,and establish production and marketing plan in accordance with local characteristics.

Through the Belt and Road Initiative, China gives play to its advantages in infrastructure,Internet economy, manufacturing, and capital to carry out extensive and in-depth cooperation with countries and regions along the road including infrastructure connectivity, cultural tourism, trade, investment and aid,construction of hydropower facilities,agriculture,education, and health care. The cooperation between China and countries and regions along the road is in a wide area, with tens of thousands of projects.Facing such a large project, China needs to implement the deeper and wider cross-cultural education,such as making Chinese people especially in these areas and project understand the countries’national and regional situation along the routes.China can also launch study abroad programs in China so as to cultivate students from foreign countries along the Belt and Road, making them master more engineering technologies, and know more scientific knowledge. At the same time, China should make the staff of these countries understand Chinese culture to enhance mutual understanding and largely reduce the cost of communication,so that both sides can reach an agreement and promote the smooth development of the cooperation projects.

2.3 Requirement of Strengthening Mutual Learning and Harmony

In today’s world, peace and development are the mainstream of the times,but warfare still exists in local regions in the world due to the influence of geopolitical conflicts, ethnic conflicts, territorial disputes, religious conflicts, violent terrorism,hegemonism and power politics. The reason lies in the lack of necessary respect and understanding for each other’s culture and civilization. Respect is the most important global value, and the world needs to respect and tolerate differences. It is the diversities and differences that represent more spirits and the better world. All civilizations should understand,open dialogs, exchange, learn from each other and live in harmony, instead of estrangement,confrontation, conflict, contradiction and incompatibility. Excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation contains positive ideas that has very important significance and guiding significance. Like the traditional Chinese philosophy of “Great Harmony”,“Harmony in diversity”,and“the perfect harmony”is of great significance to enhancing mutual learning among civilizations and harmony,building a community of human destiny, and these thoughts are also guiding thoughts for implementing cross-cultural education. By carrying out intercultural education, China can learn more about the countries and regions along the Belt and Road,and the countries and regions along the road can learn more about China and Chinese culture,so as to enhance mutual understanding between the two sides and achieve mutual learning and harmonious coexistence.

2.4 Mutual Relationship Promoting between the Belt and Road Initiative and Cross-cultural Education

The Belt and Road Initiative has promoted the further development of cross-cultural education,which has been transformed the initiative into a fruitful practice, and become the most promising and macroscopic international strategy. More and more countries and regions actively participate in since the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. The China’s economic trade with countries along the Belt and Road has been increasingly close, and the cultural exchanges between countries along the road also has been increasingly frequent, which is the result caused by in-depth economic trade. In fact,the Belt and Road is a rode of cultural exchanges and cultural mutual learning. The Belt and Road is complete in that the understanding, respect and identity of each other’s culture between China and countries along the route.

Intercultural education has fundamental and guiding advantages and functions in the international initiative of Belt and Road, and its smooth progress and development can largely promote the implementation of the Belt and Road. China has gained a better understanding of the world and the world also has a better understanding of China through the intercultural education. The two sides have gained more mutual respect, understanding and trust, which provides cultural support for the smooth development of the Belt and Road related cooperation projects. At the same time, the two sides can exchange personnel to study abroad, learn advanced science and technology and development experience,and accumulate abundant human capital for the better promotion of cooperation projects.

3 New Way of Cross-cultural Education under the Belt and Road

3.1 To Advance Cross-cultural Education through Higher Education

In recent years, the continuous development of Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run schools in higher education in China has formed a diverse mode such as integration mode, grafting mode, loose mode and so on[3].The higher education is an important part of intercultural education. At present, China and countries along the Belt and Road implement cross-cultural education by setting up international student training programs in higher education. With the theme of the Belt and Road, many cultivation programs of international students have been supported and welcomed by many countries along the route, and obtained good results. For example, the Business School of the Silk Road Central Asia,Xi’an Jiaotong University was jointly established by Xi’an Jiaotong University and Kyrgyzstan National University of Engineering, in which has had seven students from Kyrgyzstan studied here. Additionally,the training base of International Engineering Technology Knowledge center and the Belt and Road of the UNESCO was settled in Xi’an Jiaotong University,which cultivates thousands of engineering science and technology talents every year, and the base will build a database of countries along the Silk Road including national conditions and politics,culture and history, populations and environment.For another example, Xi’an Jiaotong University launched a“Silk Road University League”in 2015,which has had 134 universities from 34 countries and regions participated, and formed a platform of higher education cooperation. The league also held summer camp of the Silk Road,and youth leadership program of the Silk Road, which has attracted more and more students involved, young people could learn from the experience of different essence and characteristic of culture, through cross-regional, across-culture,cross-ethnic education and learning. To a large extent, it is conducive to cultivating high quality and compound talents with international vision.

3.2 To Implement Intercultural Education in Different Countries

In the context of the Belt and Road Initiative,the significance of the intercultural education has two aspects including domestic and world meaning. First of all,as for China,as the advocate and sponsor of the Belt and Road Initiative, China implements cross-cultural education or cross-cultural management for domestic enterprise, talents, and organizations[4]. To make them know the basic national conditions of countries along the road including geographical information, customs,ideology,national characteristics, values, government policy and so on, they can adapt to foreign countries when our country’s enterprises “going global”, and quickly mobilize all kinds of resources and factors so as to carry out the corresponding work faster. And they can quickly build a good relation with local people, which can enhance mutual trust, eliminate communication barriers, reduce communication cost,and play an important role in promoting the cooperative projects of the Belt and Road. Secondly,as for the world,as the pioneer of the Belt and Road,China warmly welcomes countries and regions around the world, actively help countries and regions along the route construct the infrastructure including transportation and energy, and help them develop economy, increase employment. Above these reflect that the cross-cultural education aims to encourage countries and regions to dispatch their people to China for studying scientific knowledge and engineering technology, and jointly constructing the high-end think tank of the Belt and Road. The implementation of intercultural education across geographical space can allocate education resources effectively, increase the usage efficiency of education’s resources and make more countries and regions along the Belt and Road benefit.

3.3 To Establish Three-dimensional Intercultural Education System

China should push forward intercultural education as a whole in intercultural awareness,knowledge and ability. Firstly, the core of the cross-cultural education is the cultivation of intercultural awareness.In the context of the Belt and Road,China should help student and citizens around the world cultivate correct cross-cultural awareness that is to keep a respectful, opening, equal, tolerant,objective and rational attitude to facing foreign cultures. Cross-cultural education enables students and people to form correct world outlook, values and outlook on life, to lead them to know serious global issues and explore solutions to solve them, and inspire their spirits of dedication and solidarity so as to make contributions to the realization of peace,stability and development of countries along the Belt and Road and the world. Secondly, the basis of the cross-cultural education is systematical and overall intercultural knowledge. Intercultural knowledge is the important carrier and way to implement cross-cultural education, so the country should gather excellent cultural scholars, anthropologists,sociologists, psychologists to set learning courses of intercultural education. The language of the courses should have English and other languages. The subject setting should be comprehensive,the subjects cover politics,history,finance,law,and so on various aspects of science curriculum. The international students should not only learn the science and engineering knowledge needed by the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative,but also learn languages,customs and values of other countries. Guided by innovation, innovation should be made in teaching mode,content and faculty of intercultural knowledge.Thirdly, the eventual purpose of the implementation of cross-cultural education is intercultural competence. The cross-cultural education aims to develop students and citizens’ability of effectively communicate with other countries along the Belt and Road,which is also an ability“Going International”[5]to make students and citizens live in harmony and cooperate with people from different regions and nationalities who have different beliefs and values,and resolve conflicts and contradictions among people from different cultural backgrounds.Certainly,the intercultural awareness and knowledge are also prerequisites to improve intercultural ability[6].

4 Conclusion

In the implementation of the Belt and Rode Initiative, cross-cultural education plays a fundamental and guiding role. The development of cross-cultural education with the theme of achieving the prosperity and development of countries along the road can push forward China’s capacity, equipment,technology, talents, and enterprise going out, drive the development of countries along the route,encourage international students and staff to learn advanced scientific knowledge and engineering technology and know Chinese culture and major policy. The smooth progress of cross-cultural education will make greater contribution to the construction of the Belt and Road.