With the development of China's economy, Chinese language classes are flourishing all over the world; around 2,300 universities and 100 schools have added Chinese into their curriculum, and 124 Confucius Institutes have been established outside of China.

Meanwhile, in China, Shanghai has been criticized for using English too much as most college students spend their time worrying about the English test required before graduation. In contrast to other countries, here the people's mother tongue is to some extent ignored, or at least not as important as English in some people's eyes.

When a student masters his mother tongue, it's natural to pursue a second language. But Chinese, long deemed a fossil of history and culture with 5,000 years of recorded use, and characters representing unique symbolism, it's difficult to feel confident enough to move on.

This is where Tu Sheng Interprets Chinese Characters comes in. The new book promoting traditional Chinese culture, recently published by the People's Daily Publishing House, had its debut at the Great Hall of the People Wednesday afternoon.

Tu Sheng, or Li Tusheng, born in 1953, spent 30 years studying traditional Chinese culture and is a regular lecturer at famous universities in China and across the world. Some even call him one of the only real living masters of Sinology.

The book, which took Li five years to research, carefully selects 1,000 frequently used Chinese characters and interprets them with two separate explanations: the basic meaning of the character and its internal cultural meaning. The characters are divided into ten groups, covering politics, the economy, law, the military, education, ethics, religion, architecture and others.

It is believed the book will serve as a guide for Chinese characters among the many students learning the language across the world, as well as a golden key for those inside China to decode Chinese culture.

(Source: CRI.com February 1, 2007)