The opening ceremony for the 2023 “Chinese Bridge” Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP) Virtual Intensive Study in China was held online on July 3.

The ceremony was chaired by Song Yongbo, deputy secretary of the CPC Committee of the Center for Language Education and Cooperation under the Ministry of Education. Among the honorable speakers were Chen Jie, vice-minister of education; Nick Gibb, minister of state for School Standards of the Department for Education in the UK; Nick Thomas, director of British Council China; and Li Wei, dean of IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society.

The school leaders, teachers and students from the Office of International Programs and College of International Education and Exchange, TNU attended the event via Zoom.

MEP is a Chinese-language learning and cultural experience event for Chinese and British students. It aims to promote British students' fluency and understanding of the Chinese language and culture and to boost the friendship between students of the two countries.

It is the third year that TNU has participated in this program. After the ceremony, in five sessions, TNU lecturers introduced the general information of TNU, the teaching team, the curriculum, and the language partners to students of five British secondary schools.

Embracing the three themes of Panda and Zoo, Campus Life, and History and Cultural Heritage, TNU offers diverse and rich Chinese-language courses and cultural experience events, including livestreamed lectures, virtual tours, folk activities, panda mask-making, poetry readings, musical evenings, and local interactions. MEP adopts an audio-visual-oral multimodal teaching method to help students master Chinese language learning methods, improve their understanding of Chinese culture and enhance their friendship with Chinese teachers and students.