序一 Preface I
In 2009, I was very honored to arrange the former Minister, Dr. Ching-Ji Wu’s visit to India. It was the first time a minister from the Republic of China (Taiwan) visited India.
The former Minister, Dr. Wu and the former Minister of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, India (MHRD) had a meeting. Minister, Mr. Kapil Sibal asked Taiwan to send 10,000 Mandarin
Chinese instructors to India. It was then we understood how broad a future Mandarin Chinese language education has in India.
After returning to Taiwan, National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) officially accepted the mission from the Ministry of Education (MOE), Taiwan, to establish Taiwan Education Centers in India
(TEC). In the very beginning, I tried to contact sister universities of NTHU in India; however, the negotiation process was very challenging, as most were national institutions and there were
no formal diplomatic relations between Taiwan and India. It wasn’t until 2011 that Mr. Rawat, former Representative of India in India-Taipei Association (ITA) then, introduced a private
university, “O.P. Jindal Global University”, to establish the first Taiwan Education Center in India, known as TEC-JGU. In addition, it was very lucky that, in Dubai Education Fair, I
happened to come across the son of the Founder of Amity University, the largest private university in India. This has led us to set up the second TEC in India, also known as TEC-Amity.
After two TECs in private universities in India have been established, with the help of Prof. T.C.A. Rangachari in Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), the first TEC in national university was
founded in May 2013, also known as TEC-JMI. Professor Rangachari speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese which he acquired in the Republic of China before 1949. Professor Rangachari was the former
Indian Ambassador to Germany and France In the same year, 2013, the 4th TEC was established in Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), also known as TEC-IITM. If it wasn’t for the MoU
of sister universities signed during the former NTHU President, Dr. Wen-Tsuen Chen’s, visit to India in 2009 this would not have been possible.During 2015 to 2017, NTHU has further
established TEC in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), SRM University (Sri Ramaswamy Memorial University, which was renamed as SRM Institute of Science and Technology, SRMIST), and Indian
Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB). These three branches namely TEC-JNU, TEC-SRMIST, TECIITB.
Since 2011, one TEC has been established each year on an average (details shown in table 1). Later MOE suggested that we could slow down our pace. Nevertheless, Chitkara University
contacted us in 2018, expressing that they would like to support NTHU to set up a TEC in their campus and offered to cover all the expenses required. The 8th TEC was still much supported by
MOE in Chitkara University, and hence, TEC-Chitkara was established in 2019. The Ministry of Education altered its previous policy and acceded to NTHU to continue establishing TEC in India.
In this regard, the 9th TEC in India in SRM University, Andhra Pradesh, was established, also known as TEC-SRMAP.
The establishment of TEC assists institutions around Taiwan to collaborate with the Indian universities. With the education of Traditional Chinese characters, it was possible to introduce
Taiwanese culture to Indian students and helps them to have better understandings of Taiwan. The Indian-Taiwan bilateral collaboration has been fruitful with the partner universities’ support
in providing our instructors’ staff quarters and other necessities.
After running TEC for about 5 to 6 years, we came to notice that there are no books from Taiwan in India. For one, the Indian government protects the press and publication industries in
India. For another, without formal diplomatic relations between Taiwan and India, it is very difficult for publishers to issue Taiwanese books to India. Moreover, though there are many great
Mandarin Chinese language teaching materials by Taiwanese publishers, they are not designed for Indians. We think learning a language requires adaptive materials designed based on learners’
cultural background. With the support from MOE, we have organized three “India-Taiwan Bilateral Forum on Mandarin Chinese Teaching Materials for Indian Learners” since 2017. We have gathered
opinions and requirements on the needs of Mandarin Chinese teaching and learning from institutions around India.
This provides us much confidence in developing a new Mandarin Chinese learning material dedicated to Indian. At the same time, we came to understand that exporting books to India cost
tremendously. Consequently, we decided to search for local publishers for printing, publishing and selling new material.
With years of sustained effort, we have gained sole license to edit, print, publish and sell the best-selling Mandarin Chinese textbook, A Course in Contemporary Chinese, in Taiwan edited
by National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). It took us a year and a half to acquire an exclusive license from “Linking Publishing Company” to publish this textbook in India. Thanks to the
Founder of Yaoindia, Ms. Chih-Wei Yu, who introduced us to “Sanctum Books” to handle related works of printing, publishing and sales. Before this, Taiwan and India had no such international
collaboration. The printing quality is exquisite and the price is also tailored to the Indian market. This textbook A Course in Contemporary Chinese is now on sale on Amazon India online. All
TEC now are using this textbook as official teaching and learning material. We hope this material will become a popular choice among teachers and learners of Mandarin Chinese language in
India.
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