China Daily

[Nira Sun]

Website URL:     http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/

I came upon this website while I was collaborating with a teacher in the AP Chinese summer institute. As we discussed how to expose our students to current events in China, she brought up this website saying it covers variety of information on there.

Website Content:

This website indeed covers news and events happened in China from lifestyle to weather, from modern changes in the society to economics, from culture exploration to travelling and, last but not least, from regional news to world news. It definitely gives diverse resources to students who are interested in learning about the contemporary China. I picked a few topics I personally believe its useful in my classroom to elaborate here:

• Innovation: this category covers most updated technology developments in different fields. For example:
  • DNA tests that reveal core of illness and character.
  • Chang’e-4 set off for far side of the Moon.
• Education: It covers current events that happen in the field of education
  • UNESCO seeking to increase Chinese staff.
  • Unjustified and irrational scores on English exam in the college entrance exam led to the officials to be fired in Zhejiang Province
• Culture: it covers topics from music, art, to film and TV
  • Cultural exchanges promote mutual understanding
  • Nobel laureate on Chinese culture
  • Photo galleries on ancient encyclopedia shown in Beijing museum

 

Use of the website content:

In my AP Chinese class, students are non-heritage learners who have only been exposed to the language for 3 years in the classroom. It is certainly challenging for them to comprehend complex messages in Chinese. However, AP course requires students to be aware of the social events and changes happening in China. This website certainly helps me to have students gradually catch up with the most current events as they learn the traditional values in the language that they are most comfortable with. I would still encourage my students to research on topics they are interested in from other resources though due to the fact that this website is operated by Chinese official government. This is to minimize the possibility of them being biased by only one single perspective.

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