1. Introduction
1.1. Research Background
Since its launch in 2006, the program of “Chinese Bridge” Summer/Winter Camps to China has attracted many overseas students to come to China for Chinese language learning and cultural experience. The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 affected the progress of the “Chinese Bridge” program and forced the suspension of the Summer/Winter Camps Program. In order to keep the enthusiasm of overseas students in learning Chinese, expand the influence of Chinese culture in overseas countries, and encourage more overseas people to join in learning Chinese and understanding China, the Center for Language Education and Cooperation has set up the “Chinese Bridge” Online Program, which used to be offline programs. It has carried out a new transformation of international Chinese language education and the way of international communication of Chinese culture.
1.2. Research Significance
The “Chinese Bridge” Online Program is a positive attempt to change the patterns and explore new ways for international Chinese education during the epidemic period, aiming to provide a new direction for the international transmission of Chinese culture. However, the online program started late and experienced a short period of development, so the improvement of activity organization, course content and form, as well as the measures to be taken to improve the transmission are all worthy of study.
Zhejiang Province is in the southeast coast of China, and the education industry in Zhejiang is relatively more developed than other regions. In the year 2018, the number of international students in colleges and universities in Zhejiang province reached 38,190, accounting for 7.76% of the total number of international students in China and ranking fourth
(http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/gzdt_gzdt/s5987/201904/t20190412_377692.html) in the country. The number of international students in Zhejiang universities reached 41,297 in 2019, which was an increase of 10.03%
(http://jyt.zj.gov.cn/art/2019/12/25/art_1229266336_2379598.html) over the previous year, however, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented some international students from continuing to study in China. In view of this, this paper takes the “Chinese Bridge” online program carried out by colleges and universities in Zhejiang province as the research object, studies the current situation of international communication of Chinese culture and puts forward existing problems and gives corresponding suggestions, hoping to provide reference for the development of online group exchange program and international communication of Chinese culture.
1.3. Literature Review
A Review of Chinese Culture and Its International Communication
In terms of Chinese culture, Wu (2012) divided culture into material culture, behavioral culture and spiritual culture. Gu (2011) divides culture into two categories: one is the Chinese culture left over by history and tradition, and the other is the social culture behind the language of today’s China, namely Chinese culture or life culture. Bai (2017) divides culture into three levels: word culture, Chinese character culture and custom culture, and points out that the process of teaching and communication cannot be limited to a certain level. Xu (2021) points out that Chinese traditional culture is not solidified but contains modern spirit. As can be seen from the above analysis, the “culture” mentioned in the last three refers to the classification of Chinese culture. Scholars have various views on “What contents Chinese culture contains”. However, it can be concluded from the previous studies that Chinese culture is not only about the excellent traditional culture of China, but also diverse and rich in content.
In terms of the international communication of Chinese culture, Yang and Wang (2022) analyzed the advantages and potential of expanding the international communication path of Chinese culture in the new era from the perspective of the international situation and put forward the promotion strategy for Chinese culture communication. Wu (2012), after investigating students from 16 Confucius Institutes in 5 countries, put forward suggestions on the communication and teaching of different cultures, and pointed out that China’s material culture should go out first. Starting from the perspective of cultural teaching in Chinese teaching, Lu (2015) explained the selection, arrangement, presentation and mentality of cultural content in Chinese teaching, and proposed that a key factor in the communication of Chinese culture is the image of the Chinese people. Bai (2020) proposed that in the current post-epidemic era, the construction of cultural teaching resources should be the focus of the communication of Chinese culture. Tao (2018) analyzed the communication of Chinese culture through the 5W model, and pointed out that in the future, the content of international communication of Chinese culture should pay more attention to the ideology and the times, and the communication should focus on the emphasis of traditional culture and contemporary culture and the proportion between the two. Dai and Cheng (2022) pointed out that there are good external opportunities and material basis for the international communication of Chinese culture at present, and more changes should be made in the concepts and themes of cultural communication, to help Chinese culture be more widely recognized and accepted in the world.
From the studies analyzed above, it can be seen that the current research on the content of Chinese culture and the international communication of Chinese culture are relatively mature. In recent years, China has been making great efforts and taking effective measures to “presenting compelling Chinese stories”. However, the international communication of Chinese culture is not invariable. The content of Chinese culture will increase with the passage of time, and the forms of international communication will also increase gradually with the development of science and technology. Therefore, continuous research and improvement are needed to obtain the optimal solution of the current international communication of Chinese culture. Based on the research and analysis, the author of the paper tries to analyze and reflect on the forms of international communication of new Chinese culture in the period of epidemic, hoping to provide a new direction for the study of international communication of Chinese culture.
1) A Review of the “Chinese Bridge” Online Program
With the continuous promotion and development of “Chinese Bridge” online program, some scholars did relative research in this field. Li (2022) compared the improvement of the two-year online group exchange program in Indonesia undertaken by the school and provided reference and suggestions for the implementation and promotion of such programs.
Taking Liaoning University’s online two-way project as an example, Zhuo (2022) points out the existing problems of the online “Chinese Bridge” projects from the perspective of online teaching and student learning and puts forward relevant suggestions.
Yu (2021) took “China-Thailand Interaction Cloud Travel to China” online tour camp as an example to investigate the students’ satisfaction with the online tour camp, and proposed corresponding countermeasures and suggestions for the preparation, implementation and follow-up stages of such online programs.
In recent years, most scholars have conducted research on individual online exchange program of “Chinese Bridge”, but few have conducted overall research on multiple online programs of “Chinese Bridge”, and the research perspectives are also limited. Therefore, the author tries to conduct research on online programs of “Chinese Bridge” conducted by provincial universities. Based on the relevant theories of communication, this paper analyzes the online exchange programs, and puts forward some suggestions and directions for the international communication of Chinese culture and the organization of online programs of “Chinese Bridge”. “Chinese Bridge” online group exchange program has just started and may become a long-term exchange program. However, there are still few research in related aspects. Therefore, it is necessary for the writer to carry out a thorough research on “Chinese Bridge” online program, which is a new form of international communication of Chinese culture.
2) Research Review of the “5W” Model
Harold Lasswell, one of the founders of communication, put forward the theory of communication model (also known as the “5W” model). According to Lasswell, the convenient way to depict the communication behavior must answer the following five questions: Who? Says what? In which channel? To whom? and With what effects? These five elements are crucial for communication process and thus make up the “5W” Model of communication (Lasswell, 2017).
In the field of communication, some scholars have carried out research on the ontology theory of “5W” Model. According to Li (1993), the five elements of the “5W” Model cover almost all the contents in the field of communication, which is the theoretical framework of the whole communication study. Gao (2008) pointed out the limitations of the “5W” model from the beginning of the formation process of the theory. Iridana (2021) analyzes Lasswell’s three communication theories from the perspective of historical background and proposes that although the theory of communication mode has certain limitations, it provides a direction for future research on communication activities. Sapienza, Iyer and Veenstra (2015) proved from a conceptual point of view that Lasswell’s communication model is flexible in nature and sufficient to meet the theoretical needs of today’s scholars by analyzing the practicability and value of the modern “5W” Model.
Lasswell proposed the “5W” Model in 1948, and the theory was applied to various disciplines in the following decades. According to the number of current research papers (taking the papers included in CNKI as an example), there are 923 papers using the “5W” Model/Theory for research and analysis through subject retrieval, which are respectively used in sports, art, culture, education, economy and trade. As a communication model and theory, the “5W” Model still has strong vitality and is worthy of more in-depth research. Therefore, this paper chooses the “5W” Model as the theoretical basis to analyze the online program of “Chinese Bridge”.
1.4. Research Methods
1.4.1. Literature Review
By referring to the books and literature related to the international communication of Chinese culture in recent years, the author understands the research status of the international communication of Chinese culture. Besides, the author consults relevant literature of “Chinese Bridge” online programs and sort out relevant materials of Zhejiang University online programs.
1.4.2. Statistical Method
According to Lasswell’s “5W” Model and under the guidance of relative theory, the author will organize the contents of the “Chinese Bridge” online group exchange program in Zhejiang Province in 2020 and 2021. And on this basis, the author makes statistical charts to analyze the current situation of the international communication of Chinese culture in the online program of “Chinese Bridge”.
1.4.3. Questionnaire Method
The author designed, distributed and collected questionnaires to investigate the feedbacks of communication targets on the online programs, so as to analyze the international communication effect of the “Chinese Bridge” online programs as a way of Chinese culture communication.
2. “Chinese Bridge” Online Program and the International
Communication of Chinese Culture
2.1. Overview of “Chinese Bridge” Online Program
The “Chinese Bridge” online program is an online winter/summer camp program initiated by Center for Language Education and Cooperation and programs were self-declared and organized by Chinese universities. According to the themes of the programs, they are divided into four categories: language learning, cultural characteristics, two-way communication and contemporary China. The group programs as a whole adopt the combination form of live, recorded & broadcast, and online activities, so that overseas people can learn Chinese language and experience Chinese culture in the cloud.
The “Chinese Bridge” online program started in 2020. Since it takes a certain amount of time to organize and prepare the online exchange program, the projects declared in the current year are usually officially launched at the end of the year or the next year. The time mentioned in this paper are all the project declaration years. In 2020, three government agencies, one higher education institution, 101 universities and four middle schools from all over the country applied for 202 online “Chinese Bridge” programs. In 2021, 3 government agencies/units, 1 institution of higher education, 12 middle schools, 1 secondary professional school and 204 colleges and universities applied for 464 online projects. The types and number of schools and projects increased significantly compared with those of 2020.
2.2. The Relationship between “Chinese Bridge” Online Program
and the International Communication of Chinese Culture
2.2.1. The International Communication of Chinese Culture Provides Experience for Online Programs
The international spread of Chinese culture can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty, when Jizi brought civilization from the Central Plains to the Korean Peninsula. In the following three thousand years, the spread of Chinese culture to the outside world has never stopped. From traditional communication methods to the era of multimedia communication and now to the era of new media communication, the international communication of Chinese culture has found many ways and methods in its development, and the “Chinese Bridge” series of activities is one of them. The historical experience of international communication of Chinese culture provides a lot of reference for online exchange programs, which also enhances the rapid development of online exchange programs. Thus, it becomes one of the mainstream forms of international communication of Chinese culture in the era of epidemic.
2.2.2. Online Exchange Programs Complement the International Communication of Chinese Culture
The “Chinese Bridge” online program is a new attempt made by Center for Language Education and Cooperation against the background of the epidemic. It is the first time to use online teaching as the main teaching method. The author agrees with Lu et al. (2020) that “the development of online teaching to a certain extent has eliminated some people’s previous resistance to Confucius Institutes and pointed out a new road for the future”. Online communication has broken the geographical restrictions of language and cultural transmission, and the audience scope of Chinese language and cultural communication has also expanded in a large scale.
In an era dominated by new media communication, online exchange programs supplement the way of international communication of Chinese culture, constantly improve the new path of online communication, and effectively broaden the idea of international communication of Chinese culture.
3. The Status Quo of the International Communication of
Chinese Culture in the Online Program of
“Chinese Bridge”
3.1. Communicator
In the “5W” model, the communicator is the beginning of communication activities, and the communicator also controls the content of communication. In the international communication chain of Chinese culture, taking “Chinese Bridge” online program as an example, universities and organizations that apply for online group exchange programs are the communicators.
In the year 2020, 9 universities in Zhejiang Province applied for 12 online projects. In the year 2021, a total of 18 colleges and universities applied for 32 online projects, with a year-on-year increase of 100% in the number of colleges and 166.7% in the number of projects.
In terms of the colleges and universities who applied for the projects, the Annual Report on the Internationalization Development of Higher Education in Zhejiang Province classifies colleges and universities in Zhejiang Province into the following four categories: master and doctoral authorized colleges, general undergraduate colleges, higher vocational colleges and independent colleges. Based on this, the author divides the universities applying for “Chinese Bridge” online exchange programs into four categories according to the same standard. Among the 9 universities that have applied for the online exchange program in the year 2020, there are 6 universities authorized to master and doctoral degrees, 2 general undergraduate universities, 1 higher vocational college and there were no independent colleges. Among the 18 universities applying for the 2021 online exchange programs, 11 universities are authorized to master and doctoral degrees, 4 are general undergraduate universities, 3 are higher vocational colleges, and there were no independent colleges.
Based on the analysis of data above, it can be seen that the number of colleges and universities applying for online programs is on the rise, and more and more colleges and universities are beginning to pay attention to and participate in the online exchange programs of “Chinese Bridge”. From the perspective of the category of universities, the majority of the universities to apply for the online group exchange program are universities authorized to master and doctoral degrees. The number of general undergraduate colleges and higher vocational colleges has increased, but the total number is still small. Independent colleges have not yet carried out the application of online projects.
3.2. Communication Content
Communication content refers to the information content transmitted, which is an information combination composed of a group of meaningful symbols. Taking the programs of “Chinese Bridge” as an example, in the international communication chain of Chinese culture, all contents in the live broadcast, recorded broadcast and online activities of the online exchange program belong to the communication content. The language and culture requirements for the online program in 2020 are as follow: “40% of the courses are language courses and 60% of which are courses related to Chinese culture or contemporary China experience”, which will be changed to “at least 40% language courses” in 2021 and beyond. Therefore, the author also divides the communication content into “Chinese culture learning” and “Chinese language learning” to analyze the status quo.
3.2.1. Chinese Culture Learning
According to the program launched by universities on the “Chinese Bridge” online experience platform, the author divides the Chinese culture courses into three parts according to the contents, which are, courses about traditional culture, courses about contemporary China, and courses about traditional culture & contemporary China.
Traditional culture refers to the unique Chinese culture, which is constantly evolving and developing based on the Central Plains culture, including folk customs, opera, chess, tea ceremony, traditional Chinese musical instruments, calligraphy and painting, etc. According to statistics, there are 16 such projects, accounting for 36.4% of the total number of projects, including 7 such projects in 2020 and 9 projects in 2021 respectively.
In addition to traditional culture, contemporary China is also an important part of Chinese culture, including China’s contemporary politics, economy, people’s living conditions, and so on. According to statistics, there are 9 such projects, accounting for 20.5% of the total number of projects, including 1 project in 2020 and 8 projects in 2021 respectively.
Some of the courses are both traditional culture and contemporary Chinese courses. According to statistics, there are 14 groups of such projects, accounting for 31.8% of the total number of projects, among which there are 3 such projects in 2020 and 11 in 2021.
According to the statistic, an increasing focus on both traditional culture and contemporary China. Chinese people show their confidence not only in traditional culture, but also in the development and achievement China has got through decades’ efforts.
3.2.2. Chinese Language Learning
Language is the foundation of cultural learning, so language learning is an indispensable part of online group programs. It is not difficult to find that the proportion of language learning is increasing by comparing the declaration letters of online group programs over the past two years. According to the courses uploaded by universities in Zhejiang province on the “Chinese Bridge” online experience platform, a total of 8 projects have added language lessons to the recorded courses, including Mandarin pronunciation, basic Chinese, HSK Chinese, oral Chinese and other courses.
At the same time, some group programs arrange language learning in different classes according to the different Chinese language level of the students. The author consulted the reports on online exchange programs of various universities and collected relevant information according to their reports. After sorting and classifying, it is found that there are 2 projects in 2020 and 3 projects in 2021 that adopt the hierarchical learning method in Chinese language learning. One program divided students into three classes based on their Chinese proficiency, and four programs divided students into two classes.
3.3. Target of Communication
The target of communication is the recipient of media access, namely the audience. In the international communication chain of Chinese culture, which takes “Chinese Bridge” online group exchange program as an example, overseas students participating in the online group exchange program are the communication targets. The author divides the communication targets of the “Chinese Bridge” online exchange program into three groups according to their countries: groups from single country, groups from single continent and groups from multi-countries.
Among the online exchange programs in 2020 and 2021, there are two projects that spread to a single country, respectively for students from Zambia and Cameroon, both of which are programs applied in 2021. And there are 5 projects with students from a single continent, among which 2 projects are for students from European countries and 3 projects are for students from Asian countries, all of which are applied in 2021. The single-continent online group exchange program is mainly aimed at Asia, which is geographically close.
Among the three types of communication targets, students from multi-countries accounted for the majority. 35 projects targeted at students from multi-countries. This type of projects has a relatively large number of target countries and more participants. After sorting and classifying 35 multi-countries projects by continent, it can be concluded that among the online projects of multi-countries, there are more countries in Asia and Europe, but less countries in Oceania and South America.
3.4. Media of Communication
Media is the carrier of communication content and the channel of communication. In the international communication chain of Chinese culture, taking “Chinese Bridge” online programs as an example, news reporting platforms, live broadcasting platforms and online experience platforms of “Chinese Bridge” groups in various universities are the media of communication. From the perspective of communication process, the author analyzes the communication media from three following aspects: the enrollment channels, the live course platform and the publicity platform.
3.4.1. The Enrollment Channel
Before the project is carried out, colleges and universities need to recruit students, which is also one of the communication processes. The author uses the mainstream search engine to find the platform of each project to release the admission prospectus and sorts out and analyzes the different released platforms.
Among all the projects, 17 projects were posted on the campus websites; 2 projects were posted on the government websites; 3 projects were posted on other mainstream news websites. Among the above projects, 4 of them published their prospectus on two or more platforms.
3.4.2. Live Course Platform
According to different countries and teaching platforms commonly used by colleges and universities, the live course platforms selected by colleges and universities are also different. In 2020 and 2021, the live-streaming course platforms used by the online “Chinese Bridge” programs of universities in Zhejiang province mainly include Chinese Union, DingTalk, Zoom, Tencent Meeting and YouTube. Based on the articles published on the Internet by colleges and universities, the author sorted out the live course platforms of colleges and universities. The sorting results are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Figure of the number of projects using live course platforms.
|
Chinese Plus |
DingTalk |
Zoom |
Tencent Meeting |
YouTube |
Unknown |
2020 |
6 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2021 |
3 |
9 |
6 |
5 |
2 |
12 |
Total |
9 |
11 |
7 |
5 |
2 |
14 |
Among the above projects, there are 4 projects that use two platforms for live course teaching at the same time, which are all projects applied in the year 2021. For example, write “Temperature (K)”, not “Temperature/K”.
3.4.3. Publicity Media
During the implementation of the programs, all colleges and universities published news reports or articles on the Internet, showing the opening and closing of the programs and the learning process and achievements of the projects, which promoted the international communication of Chinese culture to a certain extent.
In the years 2020 and 2021, the publicity platforms for the “Chinese Bridge” online programs of Zhejiang Universities mainly include campus websites, government websites, local news portals and other mainstream news websites. The author used mainstream search engines to find the reports and articles published by each project and sorted out the published platforms. The sorting results are shown in Table 2. Reports and articles published on foreign websites and reprinted on web pages are not included in the total.
Table 2. Number of promotional projects using each platform.
|
School Website |
Official Website of the Government and Its
Subordinate Departments |
Local News
Portals |
Other
Mainstream News Websites |
Unknown |
2020 |
11 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2021 |
28 |
2 |
10 |
13 |
0 |
Total |
39 |
4 |
11 |
14 |
1 |
Among the above projects, a total of 19 published reports and articles on two or more platforms, including 4 projects in 2020 and 15 in 2021.
3.5. Communicating Effect
The communication effect is the influence of the media on the audience, which is mainly reflected in the change of the audience’s ideas and behaviors. The author mainly collects and analyzes questionnaires from two aspects: social communication effect and audience feedback.
3.5.1. Social Response—A Questionnaire Survey for Chinese University Teachers and Students
1) Survey Object
This questionnaire is distributed to Chinese university teachers and students. “Chinese Bridge” as a Chinese study brand is widely acknowledged in Chinese universities.
2) Questionnaire Design
The questionnaire consists of 7 questions and is expected to take 1 minute. The questionnaire is designed with two lines, mainly to investigate the domestic communication effect and social response of the online programs of “Chinese Bridge”.
3) Questionnaire Survey Results
A total of 111 questionnaires were issued, 111 were recovered, and 107 were valid.
Through the statistical analysis of 107 valid questionnaires, the basic information of the survey objects was understood.
Among the 107 valid questionnaires, 86.92% of the survey objects mentioned that they knew the online project of “Chinese Bridge”. 75.93% of them learned about the “Chinese Bridge” online group exchange program through social media, and 29.63% of them said they had participated in the “Chinese Bridge” online program as a lecturer, teaching assistant, language partner, etc. As for the response of the online program, 31.48% of the survey objects thought that the online programs of “Chinese Bridge” was “very good”, 59.26% of them thought that it was “good” and 9.26% thought that it was “average”.
In addition, 49.53% of the survey objects did not know about the online programs of “Chinese Bridge”; after a brief introduction, 71.7% of the survey objects said that if given the opportunity, they would like to participate in the “Chinese Bridge” online program as a Chinese volunteer.
3.5.2. Participants’ Feedback—Questionnaire Survey for Overseas
Students
1) Survey Object
This questionnaire is distributed to overseas students who have participated in the “Chinese Bridge” online program held by colleges and universities in Zhejiang province.
2) Questionnaire Design
The questionnaire is divided into three parts. The first part is basic information of the participants, including nationality, age, gender, Chinese proficiency, etc., with a total of 6 questions. The second part is a survey on the communication effect of the “Chinese Bridge” online program. The respondents were required to select an item from “strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree”, with 15 questions in total. The third part is the subjective question, including the choice of the most favorite part of the online program, the description of the “Chinese Bridge” online program for the most helpful to the writer and the writer’s suggestions for the online group exchange program, with a total of 3 questions. The questionnaire consists of 24 questions and is expected to take 5 minutes. The questionnaire mainly investigates the participants’ response to the online program of “Chinese Bridge”.
3) Questionnaire Survey Results
A total of 158 questionnaires were collected and 155 were valid (see Table 3).
In the first part of the questionnaire, the participants’ Chinese proficiency, the channels to understand the “Chinese Bridge” online program and the live class platform used by the program were investigated.
The second part of the questionnaire is a five-level scale to investigate the communication effect of the “Chinese Bridge” online programs from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
The third part of the questionnaire investigates what the participants gain and their suggestions after participating in the online “Chinese Bridge” programs.
Table 3. Data quantification of the second part of the questionnaire.
|
Questions |
Strongly Agree |
Agree |
Neutral |
Disagree |
Strongly Disagree |
1 |
My Chinese proficiency has been improved. |
121 |
28 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
I have learned a lot about traditional Chinese culture. |
145 |
5 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
I have experienced a lot about traditional Chinese culture. |
110 |
25 |
20 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
I have had a better understanding of contemporary China and have renewed my opinions about this country. |
120 |
28 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
The live class platform was very good. |
90 |
35 |
25 |
4 |
1 |
6 |
I am going to use the platform afterwards. |
87 |
45 |
23 |
5 |
0 |
7 |
The live classes were quite good. |
134 |
10 |
11 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
The recorded classes were quite good. |
116 |
30 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
9 |
The class schedule was very reasonable and could meet my needs. |
114 |
26 |
15 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
The quality of teaching materials was very good. |
130 |
19 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
11 |
Teachers/Language partners provided me with great help. |
136 |
19 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
12 |
I have plans to continue learning Chinese and Chinese culture. |
138 |
11 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
13 |
I am very satisfied with the “Chinese Bridge Delegation Online” program. |
136 |
19 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
14 |
I want to continue to participate in another “Chinese Bridge Delegation Online” program. |
123 |
26 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
15 |
I will recommend the “Chinese Bridge Delegation Online” program to my
family and friends. |
111 |
34 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
4. The Existing Problems of International Communication
of Chinese Culture and Relevant Suggestions
The data analyzed above sorted out the current situation of online programs of “Chinese Bridge”. The following part will continue to analyze the current shortcomings of “Chinese Bridge” online programs from the perspective of communication and put forward relevant suggestions.
4.1. Communicator
In terms of project names set by the communicator, most project names can explain the theme and nature of the project, but some projects’ names cannot accurately indicate the nature of the projects. It is difficult to reflect whether the project category is traditional culture, language learning or two-way communication from the names of the projects. The names of the projects are not specific enough, and students cannot quickly find the projects when choosing the online exchange projects. Therefore, the organizer can further standardize the projects’ names. Colleges and universities can formulate the projects’ names under the specified requirements (such as: the year, school name, project theme and project nature, which must appear in the project name).
At the same time, Chinese students, as the disseminators of Chinese culture in the new era, are also one of the communicators and should participate in the online exchange programs. In the questionnaire survey for overseas students, some participants suggested that the biggest help of the “Chinese Bridge” online program was that her language partner could provide some materials for her to become more fluent in oral Chinese. This also shows that the one-to-one guidance and help of Chinese students (language partners) to overseas students is effective for overseas students.
4.2. Communication Target
In terms of the communication targets, it can be seen from the previous data that there were comparatively less programs with the targets from single country and single continent. Students from single country have no communication barriers, fewer cultural conflicts, and have no time differences, so it is more possible for them to form a group and apply for a certain program. The culture of other countries in the same continent is partly connected, and students’ language errors have certain commonalities. Aiming at a single continent, it is beneficial for communicators to carry out targeted large-scale communication. Teachers can also prepare the teaching content and form of language classes according to the commonalities of languages in the same continent. While the programs for multi-countries need to consider multiple cultural differences and time differences at the same time, but multi-continent projects have a wider range of culture communication. Therefore, colleges and universities can recruit students according to the actual situation of the project. The sponsor can encourage colleges and universities to choose countries/regions with similar cultural background and time zone for project design and enrollment, or the enrollment is mainly based on a certain region but does not restrict students from other regions to sign up for the project, which will maximize the communication effect while expanding the scope of communication.
4.3. Communication Content
In terms of communication content, it can be concluded from the above analysis of the data that the current online recorded & broadcasting courses mainly focus on “traditional culture” and “traditional culture & contemporary China”. However, there are relatively few projects with “contemporary China” as the theme. By analyzing the quantitative results of the questionnaire, it is found that compared with understanding contemporary China, the participants are more interested in traditional culture, and most of them have actually experienced some traditional Chinese culture in the project. However, through the “Chinese Bridge” online program, the participants also updated their views on China to some extent. Contemporary China is an indispensable part of Chinese culture. The course of “Contemporary China” is an important way to let the world know the real China. Contemporary China is also the main content of the international communication of Chinese culture. Therefore, when introducing traditional Chinese culture in the project, the development process, current status and application in modern life of the culture can be incorporated. We can continue to maintain the setting of cultural practice courses and increase the number of cultural practice courses according to students’ actual needs. We can make use of materials easily found in daily life to let students experience traditional Chinese culture such as paper-cutting, Chinese dance, traditional drama, etc.
In addition, at present, there are few online programs that carry out graded language teaching according to students’ language proficiency, and the programs that carry out graded language teaching only account for 11.4% of all programs. The international communication of culture is inseparable from language, and audiences with different language levels have different acceptances of the same cultural content in a country. According to the quantitative results of the questionnaire, the participants would basically meet the classmates whose Chinese level is much different from their own in the online projects. Therefore, colleges and universities should be encouraged to arrange classes according to students’ Chinese proficiency before the program starts or enroll only students with similar Chinese language proficiency.
4.4. Communication Media
In terms of communication media, the “Chinese Bridge” online experience platform integrates and shares the recorded & broadcast course resources of various schools. According to the quantitative results of the questionnaire, it can be concluded that the participants are very satisfied with the “Chinese Bridge” online experience platform. However, there is still a lack of a live courses platform fully suitable for international communication of Chinese culture and language. It can be seen from the above data that the number of projects using the “Chinese Bridge” live-streaming cooperation platform “Chinese Plus” in the year 2021 is less than that in the year 2020, while the number of projects using platforms such as DingTalk, Zoom and Tencent Meeting in the year 2021 is more than that in the year 2020. The live streaming course platform selected by the participants in the questionnaire survey is mainly this kind of mainstream conference platform. These mainstream conference platforms, such as DingTalk, are positioned as “enterprise-class intelligent mobile office platform”, rather than professional education platforms. Meanwhile, mainstream live-streaming software of DingTalk, Tencent Conference and other domestic platforms are still unfamiliar to overseas students, so there may be some registration and operation difficulties. In the process of collecting questionnaires, the author also found that many overseas students would not continue to use the platform or use it infrequently after they finished learning in the online group program. As an international Chinese education live streaming platform and the official cooperation live streaming platform of “Chinese Bridge”, the “Chinese Plus” has added the timer, whiteboard marker, file library and other components to the interface, meeting the basic teaching needs, but there are still some deficiencies in the interaction of live streaming classes. Due to the instability of networks and platforms, the overall quality of communication may be affected, so it is necessary to maintain an active classroom atmosphere through interaction on the Internet and the platform. Some projects using the “Chinese Plus” platform reported that the live-streaming courses lack the diversity of teacher-student interaction and student-student interaction. In the process of live broadcasting, the interaction is limited to teachers’ questions, students’ speech in the comment section or students’ self-application, which has certain inconveniences in the international communication of Chinese culture, especially in the form of practice. By analyzing the quantitative results of the questionnaire, some participants believed that they did not have much interaction and communication with teachers, classmates and language partners during the process of the project. Based on this, the Chinese Alliance platform can further construct the “Chinese Plus” platform, improving the interactive mode of live broadcasting and adding more Chinese learning resources to enable overseas students to continue to study on the platform, so as to achieve a “one-stop” long-term Chinese and cultural learning.
4.5. Communication Effect
In terms of communication effect, according to the results of questionnaires collected from Chinese people, the online program of “Chinese Bridge” has a certain effect in domestic communication. So far, quite a few Chinese people know about the online program of “Chinese Bridge”. There are some Chinese people who do not know about it, but they understand the “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for World College Students. It is worth noting that most of the participants chose “good” in their responses to the online programs, indicating that the overall social response of the online programs of “Chinese Bridge” is good, but there is still something to be improved. Communication is a two-way process. When the communication of Chinese culture is oriented to the world, it is also necessary to strengthen the awareness education of the promotion of Chinese culture in China, and let more people join in the projects of the international communication of Chinese culture.
5. Conclusion
Starting from the five dimensions of Lasswell’s “5W” Model, this paper collects the data of the “Chinese Bridge” online programs sponsored by colleges and universities in Zhejiang province in 2020 and 2021, and then analyzes the shortcomings of the international communication of Chinese culture by taking the “Chinese Bridge” online programs as an example and puts forward suggestions. The international communication of Chinese culture has a long way to go. It needs to be further improved through continuous innovation and practice according to the characteristics of the current era and the communication status, so as to achieve positive communication effects in the communication process from the communicator to the target.
However, there are some limitations in this paper. First, due to the small range of questionnaire distribution objects, the number of questionnaires collected in this paper is small, which will have an impact on the results. Second, this paper highlights multi-country programs, but gives little emphasis on single-country programs, which may have a certain impact on the investigation results and analysis. Third, the research object of this paper is only the projects applied in the years 2020 and 2021, and some of the “Chinese Bridge” online projects applied in 2022 have already been held. Since the respondents of this questionnaire may have participated in many online projects, there may be some deviation in the results of the questionnaire.