Photo: Courtesy of China Arts and Entertainment Group

The United Nations Headquarters held a series of activities on Tuesday to celebrate the upcoming Chinese Language Day, which falls on Sunday. Featuring live performances, VR experience and an exhibition of Chinese characters, the event in New York aimed to show the beauty of the Chinese language and inspire interest in learning Chinese language and Chinese culture, promoting cultural exchange and mutual understanding between China and the world.

The Opening Ceremony of the 2025 UN Chinese Language Day took place on Tuesday at the United Nations Economic and Social Council Chamber of the UN Headquarters, according to the UN website.

The celebration, themed "Poetic China: Rhymes and Romance," seeks to highlight the elegance, depth, and richness of the Chinese language. Through a variety of cultural events, attendees will have a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the distinctive rhythm and aesthetic appeal of the language, according to an invitation released by the Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the UN, the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, and the National Museum of Chinese Writing.

The Global Times learned from the China Arts and Entertainment Group (CAEG), who helped organize the event, the event centered around a poetry recital, accompanied by a Chinese character exhibition and a VR-themed video. In the poetry recital, performers first read passages from classical Chinese literature in Chinese, such as the Book of Songs and The Book of Changes, and then shared their understandings in both Chinese and English, said the organizer.

According to the CAEG, while reciting classic literary passages can pass the unique rhythm and beauty of Chinese to attendees, enhancing their interest in the Chinese language, the exhibition and VR videos help vividly present the evolution of Chinese characters over thousands of years, allowing visitors to learn more about the language's long history and the profound Chinese civilization.

Besides increasing interest in and knowledge of the Chinese language, the celebration aims to build more bridges for people-to-people exchanges, practical cooperation, cultural exchanges, and youth friendship between China and the rest of the world, according to the CAEG.

The exhibition Between the Lines - The Civilization Codes in Chinese Characters presents the evolution of Chinese characters by telling the life story of an ancient Chinese warrior living during Shang Dynasty (c.1600BC-1046BC) in the 14th century BC. It features nearly 100 selected Chinese characters and uses original illustrations and AR technology to bring ancient scripts - represented by oracle bone inscriptions - to life, vividly recreating the social landscape of the Shang and Zhou (1046BC-256BC) dynasties, the Global Times learned from National Museum of Chinese Writing, which is primarily responsible for organizing the exhibition.

The museum told the Global Times that, the exhibition, which has been updated with new elements tailored for the Chinese Language Day, shares the same core theme with the ones presented in France and Italy in 2024. The museum will localize the exhibition content based on the cultural backgrounds of different countries and regions in the future to bring the exhibition to more international platforms and allow the world to understand China's stories through Chinese characters.

According to the introduction on the UN website, the date for the Chinese Language Day was selected from Guyu ("Rain of Millet"), which is the 6th of the 24 solar terms in the traditional Chinese calendar, to pay tribute to Cangjie, who has been traditionally regarded as the inventor of Chinese characters.   

After the restoration of the lawful seat of the People's Republic of China in the UN in 1971, the Chinese language was included as a working language by the General Assembly in 1973, then by the Security Council in 1974.