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Friday is the second day of the 19th ASEAN meetings and all the focus are on ASEAN partners. China is ASEAN's largest partner and this year marked the 20th anniversary of their relationship.

Welcome to the jembatan budaya school, it literally means "a cultural bridge" and it is a pioneer of trilingual schools in Indonesia. It teaches the curriculum in English, Indonesian and mandarin.

This is their physical exercise class. All instructions are in mandarin. The teachers half are native speakers.

These kindergarten kids are Indonesians, but they all agreed being able to speak mandarin is as important as being able to speak English.

Putu Bahaduri, President Director of Jembatan Budaya, said, "With the Chinese economy growing very fast, there will be a need for mandarin language"

Putu is a fifth generation Chinese Indonesian.. but growing up during the late president soeharto, who ruled Indonesia for more than 3 decades, Chinese and Chinese culture were oppressed in the name of unity, making scenes like this in a school illegal

Only after the reform era that, the Chinese Indonesian have the freedom to express their culture.

And now, schools like jembatan budaya receives abundant support both from the Indonesian government and the Chinese government

"We received many support, native teacher, scholarships and teacher training." Putu Bahaduri said.

This year will mark the 20th anniversary of ASEAN - China relation, and the ties are stronger than ever

China, as the first country to establish strategic partnership with ASEAN, has played an important role in addressing the common challenges in the region, such as the Asian Economic crisis in 1997, the SARS pandemic and the 2004 Indian ocean tsunami to name a few

It has also become the largest trade partner of the regional association

And at the ongoing 19th asean summit an asean china centre has been inaugurated marking a new and stronger chapter in the relationship

Ma Mingqiang, Secretary General of ASEAN China Centre, said, " A one stop centre from investment, trade, culture and education"

And the hope is that.. schools like jembatan budaya will not be an exception but will be the standard, and more of the kids in the region can reap the benefits of speaking the same language as one of the most powerful country in the world.

 

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