China News Service – Staff Writer
“With the melody of four-stringed Chinese musical instrument pipa, dozens of singers of various nationalities dressed in their traditional costume sang Chinese folk song “Jasmine” in the celebrations for the sixth Chinese language day here on Monday…The celebration is held in April each year on Guyu, or literally “rain for crops,” which is the sixth of 24 divisions of the solar year created by ancient Chinese. “Chinese language, as one of the most beautiful languages in the world, carries with it profound philosophical wisdom and embodies the essence of the Chinese culture,” said Wang Min, China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN. “With China’s growing influence, the Chinese language has also gained more popularity at the UN,” Wang said, “There are more and more UN employees who can speak and write Chinese.”…Chinese language is one of the United Nations’ six official languages. It is spoken by more than 1 billion people, one-seventh of the world population. The UN Department of Public Information introduced the language days starting 2010 to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity, as well as to promote equal use of all six of its official working languages throughout the organization.”(more)