Chinese Language Day: Do you know more than 1 billion people speak Chinese as their first language?

Do you know that more than 1 billion people speak Chinese as their first language? That’s more than any other population in the world!

Chinese Language Day is celebrated every year on April 20, to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity, as well as to promote equal use of all six official languages by the UN.

UNESCO (part of the United Nations) first created Chinese Language Day in 2010 to celebrate Chinese as one of the six official languages of the United Nations. More and more UN offices and staff members work in Chinese language.

The date for the Chinese day was selected from Guyu (Rain of Millet), which is the 6th of 24 solar terms in the traditional East Asian calendars, to pay tribute to Cangjie.

Who is Cangjie?

It is believed that the origins of the Chinese language are credited to Cangjie, a very important figure in ancient China, claimed to be an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters. Legend has it that he had four eyes and four pupils, and that when he invented the characters, the deities and ghosts wept and the sky rained millet. From then on, Chinese people celebrate the day Guyu in honour of Cangjie. In the Gregorian calendar, it usually begins around April 20.

History

The Chinese language has existed for thousands of years. Chinese is a member of the Sino-Tibetian language family. Due to its complexity, its origins remain unknown as to when it separated itself from that family. But, Chinese was established as an official language of the United Nations in 1946.

5 Facts about Chinese Language

Chinese is one of the oldest languages still in use

Chinese is the most commonly used mother tongue

It's the only modern pictographic language

It's considered one of the hardest languages to learn

Chinese has different calligraphy styles