Empowering Future Leaders: Ambassador Tong Defa’s Inspiring Address at the 2024 Chinese Ambassador Scholarship Award Ceremony

Speech by Ambassador Tong Defa at the 2024 Chinese Ambassador Scholarship Award Ceremony

2024-11-06 01:25

Dear Professor Clement Apa and Professor Wang Jimin;

The Honorable Professor Emmanuel Kofi Amo Ofori, Professor of Europe, Asia and America;

Dear Professor Su Zibo;

Dear friends from the media, dear classmates, good afternoon!

Today, I am honored and happy to award the 2024 Chinese Ambassador Scholarship to outstanding students who have worked hard to learn Chinese and achieved excellent results. This scholarship was established to encourage Ghanaian students to better learn Chinese and Chinese culture, to inject new vitality into the educational and cultural exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, and to promote the flourishing friendship between China and Ghana and pass it on from generation to generation.

Chinese is one of the most beautiful languages in the world. Chinese characters, as the writing form of Chinese, are the only ones still in use among the three ancient scripts, with a history of more than 8,000 years. Each Chinese character is a combination of sound and meaning. One word or a short sentence can express a thousand words. The Book of Songs, Songs of Chu, Tang poetry, Song lyrics, and Yuan songs have beautiful artistic conceptions and profound implications. Leaders of various countries often quote Chinese idioms and allusions. As of the end of 2023, 85 countries around the world have incorporated Chinese into their national education systems, and more than 190 countries have launched Chinese education. There are more than 30 million people learning Chinese outside of China, and the cumulative number of people learning and using Chinese is close to 200 million. This year coincides with the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Confucius Institutes. Currently, there are 496 Confucius Institutes and 757 Confucius Classrooms in 160 countries and regions.

China is well aware of the important role of education in national development and has always placed educational cooperation in a prominent position when carrying out China-Canada cooperation. China has established three Confucius Institutes in Ghana, with a current enrollment of 15,000 students, and has provided Chinese teaching services to more than 150,000 students. This year, the embassy has issued visas to more than 600 Ghanaian students. Nearly 300 people have received Chinese government scholarships, and the number of Ghanaian students studying in China exceeds 4,600. The craze for learning Chinese among Ghanaian students is growing, and more and more Ghanaian students are learning Chinese to understand China and get to know the world.

The Chinese Embassy in Ghana holds the “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students and International Chinese Language Day activities every year. The famous Chinese educator Wang Guowei once said that there are three realms of scholarship. The highest level is “Looking for him a thousand times in the crowd, looking back at dusk, he is in the dim light.” I think Li Huizhen from the Confucius Institute at the University of Cape Coast is the one closest to this state among Ghanaian students. Congratulations on winning the Ghana Division Championship of the 23rd “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students and winning the second prize in the global finals. On behalf of the embassy, I would like to extend warm congratulations to you and the University of Cape Coast!

Dear classmates,

In September this year, Ghanaian President Akufo-Addo went to China to attend the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping cordially. The two heads of state jointly announced that China-Ghana relations would be upgraded to a strategic partnership, and the relations between the two countries entered a new era. era. In the next few years, both sides will work together to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and further promote practical cooperation in various fields, especially people-to-people and cultural exchanges. As stated in the “Ten Partnership Actions for China and Africa to Work Together to Advance Modernization” proposed by the Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, 2026 has been designated as the “Year of People-to-People Exchanges between China and Africa”. Of course, learning Chinese will bring more opportunities to students. We will definitely see many of you here becoming Ghana’s non-governmental ambassadors to China and contributing to deepening bilateral relations. This will also better promote Ghana’s economic and social development.

Finally, I would like to thank the teachers and volunteers at the Confucius Institute at the University of Ghana, the Confucius Institute at the University of Cape Coast, and the Confucius Institute at Nkrumah University of Science and Technology for your contributions to Chinese teaching and the spread of Chinese culture, as well as for China-Ghana relations. The hard work put into development. Without your efforts, there would be no award-winning students here today. In addition, I would also like to congratulate all the award-winning students again, and at the same time give you an ancient Chinese saying: “People are valued for their ambition, and learning is valued for their perseverance.” I hope you will continue to work hard and achieve even better academic results in the future, live up to the earnest expectations of your teachers and the embassy, and continue to be the guardians, inheritors and promoters of China-Canada friendship. Looking forward to hearing more good news from you in the future!

Thanks!