Chinese Language and Culture Learning in Belt and Road Contexts:A Post-Pandemic Study of Russia and Uzbekistan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71204/bsgvdd58Keywords:
Chinese as a Foreign Language, Learning Motivation, Learning Persistence, Intercultural CompetenceAbstract
Against the backdrop of the continued advancement of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the dissemination of the Chinese language and Chinese culture has increasingly become a crucial component of “soft connectivity” in transnational cooperation. Taking Russia and Uzbekistan as comparative cases, this study draws on questionnaire survey data supplemented by follow-up interviews to examine the strategies, challenges, and social impacts of Chinese language and culture dissemination in BRI-participating countries. The findings reveal four key patterns. First, the dissemination of the Chinese language and culture has developed into a multi-pathway configuration jointly shaped by institutional platforms and everyday social contact spaces, significantly enhancing social visibility. Second, although young people generally hold positive attitudes toward learning Chinese, learning trajectories are often short-lived, with a clear pattern of “many beginners but few long-term learners,” reflecting structural challenges related to learning sustainability and advanced support. Third, cultural understanding tends to remain at the level of observable differences, while deeper cultural interpretation requires sustained interaction and systematic learning. Fourth, while the COVID-19 pandemic expanded access to learning through online modalities, it also intensified inequalities in interaction quality and learning support. From a comparative perspective, Russia and Uzbekistan differ significantly in motivational structures, frequency of contact, and awareness of policy support, indicating that the effectiveness of Chinese language and culture dissemination is highly contingent on national contexts. This study argues that the key to effective dissemination in BRI-participating countries lies in the systematic integration of diverse dissemination pathways, enabling a meaningful transition from initial exposure to be sustained learning and deeper cultural understanding.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Lianyun Pang, Miriam Leah Ivanenko, Shakhrizoda Abdujabborova (Author)
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