Chinese Pashto linguist sees languages as medium to enhance Sino-Afghan ties

"The Preparation and compiling of the Pashtu-Chinese dictionary has taken 36-years for me and I am hopeful that learning languages and boosting cultural relations will further enhance Sino-Afghan relations," Che Hongcai, a Chinese professor, told Xinhua on Thursday.

Professor Che, 79, who learned Pashto language at Kabul University in 1959, returned to China after graduating and joined the China Radio International (CRI), where he worked as a Pashto translator and subsequently began preparing the compilation of the first-ever comprehensive Pashto-Chinese dictionary, with the objective of helping people of both countries to become more familiar with each other and to increase cultural interactions.

"I began my work on the Pashto-Chinese dictionary in 1978 and finished the work in 2014," the venerable professor said, adding the book contains 2 million words including 50,000 Pashto words and expressions.

Having been teaching Pashto language in the Communication University of China since 2000, the industrious professor expressed hope that the numbers of those studying both languages would increase in the years ahead.

"A total of 13 Chinese students are studying Pashto language in the Communication University of China and I am hopeful that the number of Pashto learners will go up in future," the professor, also a respected foreign scholar in Afghanistan, told Xinhua.

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani awarded the professor with the honor medal of Sayed Jamaluddin Afghan in recognition of his services in Pashto field, in a ceremony to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Afghanistan, at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday.

In his remarks, President Ghani praised professor Che for compiling the Pashto-Chinese dictionary, saying the dictionary can help people of both countries to further understand each other.

For Che's part, the scholar said that, "Both the people of China and Afghanistan need this dictionary and compiling the Pashto-Chinese dictionary, I think I have helped the two countries in the cultural exchanges sector and helped enhance cultural relations."

With China's support, the Chinese Language Department or Confucius Institute has been opened at Kabul University, and dozens of Afghan students are currently learning Chinese language there.

"I am hopeful that more youths and students from both countries learn each others' languages and I believe that such cross cultural exchanges and visits will further help the two countries to get closer," the professor said.