Chinese and Russian: Cementing ties with language

Ding Guangquan (C) with his overseas students at Beijing University of Chemical Technology on July 12, 2014. [Photo/VCG]

As most Russian-speaking students learn Chinese through formal universities or institutions such as Confucius Institutes, some choose a distinctive way to master the language - Crosstalk. Ding Guangquan, a well-known crosstalk performer in China, accepted his first foreign apprentice Da Shan, or Mark Henry Rowswell from Canada in 1989, who turned out to be very famous in China's show business later on. Ding accepted more than a hundred overseas apprentices from more than 70 countries, and many of them were from CEE countries such as Russia and Kazakhstan.

Many foreign apprentices of Ding believe that learning crosstalk is helpful to Chinese language study. "Crosstalk is fun Chinese in essence, and my apprentices learn Chinese culture and language through it," said Ding.

Xinhua contributed to this story.