China's inland door to the world

A University president has helped turn Chongqing into a big asset in the nation's going-global effort

As China opens its door wider to the outside world, foreign language education institutions should also follow the trend and go global as well, says Li Keyong, the president of Sichuan International Studies University based in Chongqing, the largest language studies institution in the Southwest China.

"In recent years, SISU has conducted very vigorous collaboration with international institutions. For instance, it has worked with more than 60 higher education institutions in more than 20 countries and regions.

"The ways we have collaborated include training teachers together, exchanging students and establishing some language studies institutions together," says Li, speaking to China Daily at a cafeteria located in the school's Alliance Francaise Center.

Founded in 1950, SISU now has about 14,000 students, and more than 1,000 faculty and staff members. About 200 overseas students are studying in SISU, and more than 60 foreign experts and scholars have been appointed as teachers there, says Li.

Chongqing is one of China's four municipalities, and the only one in China's interior. The other three are Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. Chongqing had a population in 2010 of 28.8 million, according to the census, though its urbanized area is smaller than that of some other cities.

"The development of SISU in international cooperation also reflects that of the globalization process of Chongqing," says Li, who had just returned from a meeting with the president of the Instituto Cervantes, who had made a visit to SISU.

"The city will gain more recognition across the world as there are more opportunities for its exposure to the outside world. For instance, the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe railway has played a very important role in connecting the city with the outside world more closely," says Li.

"Foreign language talent is a very valuable asset for the city as well as for the nation for going global. Foreign language education institutions such as SISU can play a very important role in facilitating the process," says Li.

The university is working with Chongqing Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Commission to cosponsor some international economic forums, says Li.

Li's career trajectory has in some respects paralleled Chongqing's development as internationally important city.

Born to a poor family in Yunnan province in the Southwest China, Li was interested in many subjects as a youth but happened to focus on French as an accident.

"I didn't choose French to study as my college major. Yet my college entrance notice shows that I was admitted by SISU's French department. It is destiny that French chose me and that I fell in love with it and have felt that way ever since then," says the 56-year-old president, who came to SISU in 1978, and continued working there after graduation.

Given his poor language foundation, Li had to work hard to catch up with his fellow students when he first entered SISU. During the past 36 years, Li has maintained the habit he formed of getting up at 6:30 am to study French, including reading many French books and listening to French broadcasts over a shortwave radio. After a whole day's work, he still studies French by himself until midnight.

"There is no shortcut in language studies. You have to invest lots of time and effort," says the hardworking academic, who was a professor before he became the president of SISU since 2003.

Li has made French education an important part of his life for more than 30 years, and he has many achievements in the field. He has published more than 20 articles on French education in many scholarly magazines. He also has played a leading role in publishing many French textbooks and has led the translation work on many French dictionaries. Li is a doctoral supervisor in SISU's French department.

His whole family has become involved in his language passion. His wife is a French teacher, and his daughter is continuing to learn French as she works on a master's degree in French culture in Paris.

To further promote French culture in Southwest China, Li worked hard to help establish the Alliance Francaise Center at SISU. After about three years of effort, the center opened at SISU in 2008.

In November 2012, SISU was officially admitted to the French Nations Universities Association, making SISU the only formal member of the association in China.

"Working with a foreign institution such as the Alliance Francaise Center is very important and a very effective way to improve the quality of foreign language education," says Li.

SISU also has attracted other foreign institutions to establish a presence on campus, such as Germany's Goethe-Institut and South Korea's Woosong University.

Li says universities that teach foreign languages such as SISU have some advantages over many foreign language training institutes in that their focus encompasses foreign culture to a much great extent.

In recent years, SISU has held cultural communication activities such as French Culture Week in November and their French National Culture Festival in March.

"Cultural exchange plays a very important role in enhancing bilateral understanding. There are some stereotypes and even clichs that outsiders hold. For instance, some people in France think that every Chinese person likes to eat dog meat, yet it is not true," says Li.

"With the increase of China's economic development in the global market, more and more foreigners are interested in China and its language, " says Li.

For his excellence in foreign language education and efforts to promote exchanges between China and France, Li was awarded the French Knight medal for education, also called French Order of Academic Palms, in 2007, and the National Order of Merit last year. In November 2014, France's ambassador to China traveled to SISU to confer the honor on Li.

Li says that the recognition he has received is not only a personal honor, but it also marks a major achievement for the university.

"We will keep investing efforts to boost mutual exchanges between China and the outside world, to enable China to be better engaged on the global stage, by such means as training more international talent," says Li.

Contact the writers at huhaiyan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 01/16/2015 page28)