The number of overseas Chinese and students from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan studying the Chinese language has surged in recent years. More domestic colleges have begun to target the growing group.

For example, at prestigious Jinan University in southern China's Guangdong Province, the number of overseas Chinese, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan students majoring in Chinese has jumped from 3,568 in 1999 to 7,772 this year.

Jinan University has devoted great efforts and investment to forming a professional work committee to map out the general planning for its Chinese language education.

The university has trained additional teachers and the textbook for the foreign students, which has been issued about 4 million volumes in more than 40 countries and regions.

The Huaqiao (Overseas Chinese) University in eastern China's Fujian Province has an enrollment of about 33,000 students from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and 40 other countries since it was founded in 1960.

In addition to the above two colleges, Guangdong's Zhongshan University and Fujian's Xiamen University also set up special institutes for Chinese language education.

(Xinhua News Agency July 13, 2004)