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Senators introduce bill to teach Americans ChinesePosted by Jeremy Goldkorn, May 29, 2005 5:20 PM
![]() From the website of Lamar Alexander, a Republican U.S. senator from Tennessee: MAY 26 – With the United States at the threshold of a new era in foreign policy, with the People’s Republic of China emerging as a major economic and military superpower, U.S. Sens. Joe Lieberman and Lamar Alexander have introduced the United States-China Cultural Engagement Act as a step to improve relations between the two nations... Amidst the shrill, populist squeals of US Treasury Secretary John Snow demanding that China revalue the yuan, and the unimaginative warnings emanating from the Pentagon that China is big and scary, this is good news. It's especially good news because the Senate is likely to take this bill seriously: The entire US government is pretty much controlled by Republicans right now. Alexander is a Republican from a southern state, and while Lieberman is a Democrat from Connecticut, he is the Republicans' favorite Democratic senator. If John Kerry had proposed such a bill, the Senate would have been filled with the sound of guffawing Southerners making jokes about liberal weenies from Boston and fifth columnist East Coast elites. The bill did however cause some merriment at Danwei headquarters, for an entirely different reason: Each section of the proposed legislation is named after a famous Chinese person, perhaps because Chinese characters look cool when printed out on Senatorial letterheads. If any reader can record audio footage of the American Senate debating the 'Du Fu Chinese Language Education Enhancement Act' or the 'Zhou Xinfang Artists Awareness Act', please send it to Danwei. Below is a list of all the titles, together with a brief description of the people the titles are named after, as well as links to a press release from senators Alexander and Lieberman and to their home pages. United States-China Cultural Engagement Act of 2005 Title I - Du Fu (杜甫) Chinese Language Education Enhancement Act Title II – Wang Xizhi (王羲之) Public School Chinese Language Instruction Act Title III- Zheng He (郑和) Chinese Language Instruction Act Title IV - Sun Yat-sen (孙中山) Postsecondary Exchange Act Title V – Zhou Xinfang (周信芳) Artists Awareness Act Title VI - Cai Lun (蔡伦) Exchange Program Act The image is taken from Senator Alexander's home page. Thanks to Chris Barden and Sharline Chiang for the tip. |
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