By Xinming Li, bostonese.com
Waltham, Mass., June 26, 2015, — Ambassador Zhang Qiyue, the Council General of Chinese Consulate in New York City, visited Cambridge Center for Chinese Culture (CCCC) in the afternoon of June 23. Ambassador Zhang had a meeting with representatives from the Chinese community after greeting parents, students and teachers of the CCCC Little Wagon Early Education Center.
(From left) Ms. Liu, Ambassador Zhang and students pose for a picture(photos by Xinming Li).
Mr. Huming Ji and Ms. Kai Tao, chair and vice-chair of CCCC board of directors, greeted Ambassador Zhang outside the entrance to CCCC. Ambassador Zhang thanked CCCC’s achievement in providing Chinese language education, promoting Chinese Culture over past 24 years.
Ms. Yanying Liu, director of the Little Wagon program, gave Ambassador Zhang a tour of classrooms and the dance studio. Ambassador Zhang talked with parents and students, and handed out toy dolls of sheep to the students as 2015 is the Year of Sheep in the Lunar Calendar.
Ms. Qing Gao, a board member of CCCC, told Ambassador Zhang that the Little Wagon program started in 2005, and has a long waiting list as its bilingual education model has gained popularity over past few years. Ambassador Zhang congratulated the 10th anniversary of the Little Wagon program, and mentioned that learning a second language will benefit these preschool kids in the long run.
Ambassador Zhang studied at a high school in New Year City for two years in the 1970s, and graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. From 1998 to 2004, Ms. Zhang served as spokeswomen for China’s Foreign Ministry for six years. Her previous posts also include the Secretariat of United Nations Headquarters in New York and Chinese Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
According to its website www.littlewagon.org, The CCCC Little Wagon Early Education Center is a bilingual Chinese-English multicultural preschool program that will serve the public. It’s a place where children whose first language is Chinese can learn English in a setting that affirms their culture of origin. And for children whose first language is English, it offers an opportunity to learn Chinese language, dance and art.