Interest growing in study of Persian language, history

Persian, an ancient language of the Middle East and the official language of Iran, is being embraced by more people in recent years, Persian teachers and researchers said.

Shen Yiming, director of the Section of Persian Language and Literature at Peking University, said the program used to recruit students every four years, with only about 10 being enrolled each time.

"However, as more people are expressing interest and enthusiasm about the language, we decided to recruit every two years starting from 2018," Shen said.