On November 21st, School of International Studies (SIS) held a Chinese Language teachers’ exchange meeting for the Fall Semester 2018 at Room 114 of Seaside Red Building 14 in Zhuhai Campus, to improve the teaching quality of Chinese Language curriculum for the “Belt and Road” UndergraduateScholarshipstudents. Among the participants were Li Zhuo, Director of Chinese Language curriculum in SIS, senior Chinese Language teachers, Li Haiou, Zhou Jian, Han Ran, Chen Yong, Xu Guanglie, and Guo Demao, and representatives of young Chinese Language teachers, Cai Yingbo and Zhang Yiheng. At the meeting, Mr. Li Zhuo first reported that in the Academic Year 2017-2018, of 112 “Belt and Road” UndergraduateScholarshipstudents, 94 has passed the Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK), scoring a pass rate of 84%. He then reflected on the teaching and summarized students' feedback. After that, Mr. Li, on behalf of Professor Chang Chenguang, Dean of SIS, extended his gratitude to all senior and young Chinese Language teachers for their hard work and highlighted the importance that SIS attached to the teaching quality of Chinese Language courses for international students. Later, Mr. Li introduced the design concept for the Chinese Language curriculum and emphasized the major focuses of teaching in the Fall Semester. Then, he discussed with the present teachers how to improve the integration of teaching and learning resources, achieve teaching objectives effectively, and better meet the academic needs of both the “Belt and Road” UndergraduateScholarshipstudents and the exchange students. Senior and young Chinese Language teachers aired their opinions on the class performance in this semester’s Chinese Language curriculum in terms of the Chinese proficiency, learning attitudes, and current progress of students at all levels. They also had an in-depth discussion regarding many aspects including the course difficulty, class progress, attendance, arrangements for the final examination, and measures to increase the HSK pass rate. After the heated discussions, the meeting came to an end. Mr. Li expressed his gratitude again to all teachers present and his aspiration that Chinese Language courses for international students were developed this academic year to lay a more solid foundation for students’ further studies and that the professional Chinese Language teaching could contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative.Translated by Li XiaohongProofread by Zhou Zhanhong, Lai Lichun

On May 27th, 2017, Lecture on Jewish Culture was delivered in the NO.1 Teaching Building on South Campus by Haggai Mazuz, an Associate Professor of School of International Studies (SIS). Mr. Mazuz got his Ph.D. from Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, in 2010. His research area covered Medieval Jewish-Islamic relations, Islamic jurisprudence and so on.(Associate Professor Haggai Mazuz) The agenda of his lecture was “Brief History of Jewry”, “Jewish Festivals and Customs”, “Middle East Food” and “Practical Hebrew”.First, Dr. Mazuz unfolded the long Jewish history before us by introducing some historical scenes depicted in theBible, such as “the creation of the world”, “the establishment of the Kingdom” and “the decline and the rise of dynasties”.(Haggai introducing “A Brief History of Jewry”) Then he introduced some interesting Jewish holidays and customs. The introduction seemed to evoke his memory so that he said with pride that for people of the Middle East, theBibleis by no means only a book on the shelf but a precious heritage vividly presenting their history and culture. In the “Middle East Food” part, pictures of food such as hummus, pitta and falafel showed by Mr. Mazuz successfully induce the audience’s appetites. In the end, Haggai taught audience some easy and practical Hebrew like “Shalom” (Hello) and “Ahla” (Great).(Haggai teaching Hebrew) In the Q&A section, Haggai Mazuz answered questions from several students in detail. The rewarding lecture won warm applause from the audience and concluded successfully. For more lecture information, please follow the official WeChat account of The Student Union of SIS.Translated by Lin QiaoProofread by Zhou Zhanhong, Liu Yihong

On the afternoon of May 24th, 2018, Yan Yu, a full-time researcher at the School of International Studies (SIS), gave a special lecture on "Polar Silk Road" to SIS students. Researcher Yan has obtained herdoctorateat Lomonosov Moscow State University. The lecture took place at No. 1 Teaching Building on South Campus of Sun Yat-sen University.Yan Yu The lecture firstly unfolded the development of Silk Road from ancient times to the present day. Through maps, Ms. Yan gave a detailed introduction about the Silk Road in ancient times and the history of Central Asia in terms of natural environments and cultures. Then, she introduced the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road with vivid graphs that showed the new layout for Chinese economic belt construction. Finally, through explaining geographical knowledge and the latest political situations, Ms. Yan has provided the students with a better description of the development of the Silk Road. Before introducing the concept "Polar Silk Road", Ms. Yan had asked two questions. How do you connect the Maritime-Continental Silk Roads? And what weaknesses are there in the current layout? Then, both questions had been discussed extensively among the students. In addition to explaining the "Polar Silk Road" with maps and time divisions, she also told some interesting stories about five Nordic countries. By comparing transportation costs and efficiency of northwest, central, northeast, and regular shipping routes, Ms. Yan explained complicated questions with simple geographical knowledge and common sense, deepening the students' understanding of Arctic shipping routes.Students listening to Ms. Yan Then, Ms. Yan sorted out four major advantages of the Polar Silk Road development, i.e. reducing costs, importing energy, bringing transformation and revitalizing the old industrial bases in Northeast China. Besides, she also pointed out some difficulties in developing Polar Silk Road, such as inadequate safety of navigation, lack of experienced seamen, imperfect infrastructure construction, complex geopolitical issues, harsh environments, and lack of industrial norms. As for the Sino-Russian cooperation in initiating the Polar Silk Road, Ms. Yan briefly introduced the backgrounds of bilateral cooperation and analyzed China's and Russia's roles in the international community. She noted that although there are geopolitical challenges, the potential for Sino-Russian economic and trade cooperation is undoubtedly huge. From Ms. Yan's in-depth and interesting introduction, the students had a better understanding of "Polar Silk Road" and Sino-Russian cooperation.Translated by Tian YingProofread by Zhou Zhanhong, Peng An

On May 26th, 2018, the 7th All China Interpreting Contest (ACIC) Central Region Competition was held at Zhengzhou University of Aeronautics. Five students from the School of International Studies (SIS) achieved good results. Wu Yubing and Lu Ziqian won the third prizes, while Zhang Xinyi, Li Junda and Z'hang Mingxia were awarded the honorable mentions.Opening ceremony The regional competition was hosted by the Translators Association of China and co-organized by Zhengzhou University of Aeronautics and Henan Huayi Language Service and Educational Consultation Co., Ltd. It was held in the first lecture hall of the library at Zhengzhou University of Aeronautics, where 121 competitors from 49 colleges and universities in 5 provinces—Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangdong and Henan—treated the audience to a feast of interpreting. The panel of expert judges included Feng Yongchen, the former director of the Henan Foreign Affairs Office and president of the Translators Association of Henan Province, and the senior translation reviewer Yang Weibin, the deputy director of the Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the People’s Government of Henan Province. The competition was divided into the knockout session and the qualifying session. In the knockout, competitors were required to interpret from English to Chinese. They were split into two groups that were graded by three judges respectively, and each group would turn out 20 winners. A total of 40 competitors moved on to the qualifying session of Chinese-English interpreting. In the qualifying round, each audio recording lasted less than two minutes. The competitors were required to interpret right after each recording. Then the judges graded the content of their interpreting, the use of interpreting skills and their professionalism respectively. SIS graduate students Lu Ziqian, Zhang Mingxia and Zhang Xinyi, and the undergraduate students Li Junda and Wu Yubing stood out in the provincial contest and entered the regional one. After eight hours of intense competition, Wu Yubing and Lu Ziqian won the third prizes of the central region competition, and Zhang Xinyi, Li Junda and Zhang Mingxia received the honorable mentions.SIS competitors and supervisor after the contest The 7th ACIC Central Region Competition achieved a great success and provided a rare opportunity for experience exchanges among the colleges and universities in the central region. The competition was a good chance to strengthen regional communication and to select outstanding interpreters, and it also serves as a test for foreign language teaching in colleges and universities in the new era under the guide of the Belt and Road Initiative.Translated by Zhao ZitongProofread by Zhou Zhanhong, Zhang Jiamin

Recently, the Department of Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education announced the evaluation results of the 2018 General Project for Humanities and Social Sciences Research of the Ministry of Education of China. On the list were projects of Associate Professor Haggai Mazuz and Dr. Huang Minyao from SIS. Specifically, the project of Associate Professor Haiggai Mazuz,Distinction and Opposition: the Relations of Islamic Laws and Judaism and their Influence on Early Islamic Tradition, was admitted under the category of religion study, while the project of Doctor Huang Minyao,Study of the Differences and Commonalities Between Chinese and Western Cultures on Semantic of Brand Names, was under the category of interdisciplinary and comprehensive research. In addition to the good news for SIS, SYSU also achieved good outcomes with 49 funded projects in total, ranking the second place among all universities in China.Associate Professor Haggai MazuzDr. Huang MinyaoTranslated by Wu QiongyiProofread by Zhou Zhanhong, Lai Lichun