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UN Chinese Language Day
__NOTOC__ UN Chinese Language Day () is observed annually on April 20. The event was established by the UN Department of Public Information in 2010, seeking "to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six of its official working languages throughout the organization". April 20 was chosen as the date "to pay tribute to Cangjie, a mythical figure who is presumed to have invented Chinese characters about 5,000 years ago". The first Chinese Language Day was celebrated in 2010 on the 12th of November, but since 2011 the date has been the 20th of April, roughly corresponding to Guyu in the Chinese calendar. Chinese people celebrate Guyu (which usually begins around April 20) in honour of Cangjie, because of a legend that when Cangjie invented Chinese characters, the deities and ghosts cried and it rained millet; the word "Guyu" literally means "rain of millet". Annual Events 2021 The Events Theme for 2021 is Highlighting Pictographs. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
International Mother Language Day
International Mother Language Day is a worldwide annual observance held on 21 February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism. First announced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999, it was formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly with the adoption of UN resolution 56/262 in 2002. Mother Language Day is part of a broader initiative "to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by people of the world" as adopted by the UN General Assembly on 16 May 2007 in UN resolution 61/266, which also established 2008 as the International Year of Languages. The idea to celebrate International Mother Language Day was the initiative of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, is the anniversary of the day when the Bengalis of the then-Pakistani province of East Bengal (which is now the independent state of Bangladesh) fought for recognition of their Bengali language as Official Central State Languages instead of Provincial Langu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Dongba Script
The Dongba, Tomba or Tompa or Mo-so symbols are a system of pictographic glyphs used by the '' ²dto¹mba'' (Bon priests) of the Naxi people in southern China. In the Naxi language it is called ''²ss ³dgyu'' 'wood records' or ''²lv ³dgyu'' 'stone records'.He, 292 The first artifacts with this script on them originate from approximately 30 CE. The glyphs may be used as rebuses for abstract words which do not have glyphs. Dongba is largely a mnemonic system, and cannot by itself represent the Naxi language; different authors may use the same glyphs with different meanings, and it may be supplemented with the ''geba'' syllabary for clarification. Origin and development The Dongba script appears to be an independent ancient writing system, though presumably it was created in the environment of older scripts. According to Dongba religious fables, the Dongba script was created by the founder of the Bön religious tradition of Tibet, Tönpa Shenrab (Tibetan: ''ston pa g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Official Languages Of The United Nations
The official languages of the United Nations, are the six languages used in United Nations (UN) meetings and in which the UN writes and publishes all its official documents. In 1946, five languages were chosen as official languages of the UN: English language in England, English, French language, French, Russian language, Russian, Spanish language, Spanish, and Chinese language, Chinese. In 1973, Arabic was voted to be an additional official language. As of 2025, the official languages of the United Nations are: * English language, English (British English with Oxford spelling), in the English alphabet, English Latin alphabet * French language, French (Varieties of French, français métropolitain / langues d'oïl) in the French orthography, French Latin alphabet * Spanish language, Spanish (español / Name of the Spanish language, castellano) in the Spanish orthography, Spanish Latin alphabet * Russian language, Russian (русский / Moscow dialect, Московское пр� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
International Observance
Lists of holidays by various categorizations. Religious holidays Abrahamic holidays (Middle Eastern) Christian holidays *Christmas (Nativity of Jesus, Nativity of Jesus Christ, the beginning of Christmastide) *Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God * Epiphany (holiday), Epiphany of the Lord * Palm Sunday (Commemoration of the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem) * Paschal Triduum, Easter Vigil (first liturgical celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus) and Easter. (The beginning of Eastertide) * Feast of the Ascension * Pentecost (descent of the Holy Spirit) * Feast of Corpus Christi * Feast of the Transfiguration * Assumption of Mary, Feast of the Assumption * Feast of the Cross, The Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Holy Rood Day) (commemorates the finding and annual elevation of the cross used in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ to the people) * Reformation Day * All Saints' Day * Solemnity of Christ the King * Totensonntag * Feast of the Immaculate Conception * All S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the republican era (1912–1949). It is designated as the official language of mainland China and a major language in the United Nations, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is largely based on the Beijing dialect. Standard Chinese is a pluricentric language with local standards in mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore that mainly differ in their lexicon. Hong Kong written Chinese, used for formal written communication in Hong Kong and Macau, is a form of Standard Chinese that is read aloud with the Cantonese reading of characters. Like other Sinitic languages, Standard Chinese is a tonal language with topic-prominent organization and subject–verb–object (SVO) word order. Compared with southern varieties, the language has fewer vowels, final consonants and tones, but more ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Chinese Language
Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39 billion people, or 17% of the global population, speak a variety of Chinese as their first language. Chinese languages form the Sinitic languages, Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be dialects of a single language. However, their lack of mutual intelligibility means they are sometimes considered to be separate languages in a Language family, family. Investigation of the historical relationships among the varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups based on phonetic developments from Middle Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin Chinese, Mandarin with 66%, or around 800&nb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Zhang Jun (ambassador)
Zhang Jun (, born 15 August 1960) is a Chinese diplomat who has served as the Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations from July 2019 to March 2024. In March 2020, May 2021, August 2022 and November 2023, he became President of the United Nations Security Council by assuming the monthly rotating role among Council members according to alphabetical order in the English language. Biography Zhang was born in Changchun, Jilin province in 1960. He earned a Bachelor of Laws from Jilin University in China and a Master of Laws in international law from the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. From 2007 to 2012, he was the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. He was appointed to serve as the Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations in July 2019. In August 2022, Zhang warned that Nancy Pel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Zoom (software)
Zoom Workplace (commonly known and stylized as zoom) is a proprietary software, proprietary videotelephony software program developed by Zoom Communications. The free plan allows up to 100 concurrent participants, with a 40-minute time restriction. Users have the option to upgrade by subscribing to a paid plan, the highest of which supports up to 1,000 concurrent participants for meetings lasting up to 30 hours. History A beta version of Zoom that could host conferences with only up to 15 video participants was launched on August 21, 2012. On January 25, 2013, version 1.0 of the program was released with an increase in the number of participants per conference to 25. By the end of its first month, Zoom had 400,000 users. By 2013, Zoom had more than one million users. After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, by February 2020, Zoom had gained 2.22 million users in 2020 – more users than it amassed in the entirety of 2019. In March 2020, the Zoom app was downloaded 2.13 million ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Multilingualism
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Europeans claim to speak at least one language other than their mother tongue; but many read and write in one language. Being multilingual is advantageous for people wanting to participate in trade, globalization and cultural openness. Owing to the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet, individuals' exposure to multiple languages has become increasingly possible. People who speak several languages are also called '' polyglots''. Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, the so-called first language (L1). The first language (sometimes also referred to as the mother tongue) is usually acquired without formal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Liangzhu Museum
The Liangzhu Museum () is an archaeological museum dedicated to the Neolithic Liangzhu culture. It houses a collection of artefacts from the archaeological culture. It is located in Liangzhu, in the northwestern outskirts of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province, China. Origin of the name The culture was first discovered in a small township called Liangzhu, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang in 1931, and so similar discoveries found near the site are altogether called Liangzhu culture. The Liangzhu culture is also known as the Jade culture and dates from 3000 BC. The Museum is built on the site where many Liangzhu treasures were unearthed. History of the museum The museum was designed by David Chipperfield Architects and completed in 2007. The site was previously a contaminated industrial site, and has been landscaped into a park by Levin Monsigny Landschaftsarchitekten, with hills and manmade streams. The project took five years to design and construct, and was developed in conjunc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Yinxu
Yinxu (; ) is a Chinese archeological site corresponding to Yin, the final capital of the Shang dynasty (). Located in present-day Anyang, Henan, Yin served as the capital during the Late Shang period () which spanned the reigns of 12 Shang kings and saw the emergence of oracle bone script, the earliest known Chinese writing. Along with oracle bone script and other material evidence for the Shang's existence, the site was forgotten for millennia. Its rediscovery in 1899 resulted from an investigation into oracle bones that were discovered being sold nearby. The rediscovery of Yinxu marked the beginning of decades of intensive excavation and study. It is one of China's oldest and largest archeological sites, and was selected by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2006. Yinxu is located in northern Henan, near modern Anyang and the borders Henan shares with Hebei and Shanxi. Public access to the site is permitted. Traditional history According to the 2nd century ''Shuowen Jiezi'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Old Town Of Lijiang
Dayan (), commonly called the Old Town of Lijiang () is the historical center of Lijiang City, in Yunnan, China. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. History The town has a history going back more than 1,000 years and was once a confluence for trade along the "Old Tea Horse Caravan Trail". The Dayan Old town is famous for its orderly system of waterways and bridges, a system fast becoming but a memory as the underground water table drops, probably due to over-building in the suburban areas. Lijiang's culture combines traditional Nakhi culture and incongruous elements learned from Ming dynasty Han Chinese traders who settled in the region centuries ago. Nakhi people have kept alive a timber and mud brick housing style which they learned from Nanjing traders. Local carpenters still build elaborately constructed timber house frames from memory without blueprints or other diagrams. These houses are often enhanced by detailed flower and bird carvings on the windows. The carvings ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
