XJTLU International Chinese Education Public Lecture Series (Session 1)

On June 16, the first session of the XJTLU Public Lecture Series on International Chinese Language Education was successfully held. Professor Chengzhi Chu delivered a cutting-edge academic talk titled Theory and Practice of the E-writing Transformation in International Chinese Language Education. Conducted in a hybrid format, the lecture attracted students and faculty from XJTLU as well as Soochow University, Renmin University of China (Suzhou Campus), and Fudan University.

Professor Chengzhi Chu teaches Chinese language and linguistics at the University of California, Davis, where he also serves on the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics. He is a Standing Director of the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching and Past President of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, USA. His extensive research and teaching experience spans Chinese linguistics, cognitive semantics, corpus linguistics, L2 Chinese pedagogy, and technology integration in Chinese education.

Dr. Henghua Su, Head of the Modern Languages Centre at XJTLU, opened the lecture with welcoming remarks, introducing Professor Chu and welcoming all participants.

Professor Chu systematically addressed the e-writing transformation, articulating the necessity, theoretical reconceptualisation, and pedagogical practice of shifting from handwriting to e-writing. On the theoretical side, he traced the three stages of writing development—carving, handwriting, and e-writing—and highlighted the limitations of clinging to traditional handwriting in today's Chinese language education. He argued that learners’ Chinese character competence in the digital age must be redefined based on the principle of optimising efficiency, distinguishing practical e-writing from experiential handwriting. On the practical side, he shared classroom approaches such as real-world communicative tasks on social platforms and character analysis and collaborative writing using digital tools. He stressed that e-writing transformation is not merely tool substitution, but a systemic reform of teaching objectives, materials, classroom activities, and assessment. Only through this holistic approach can the dual improvement of Chinese teaching efficiency and students' communicative competence be achieved.

Prof. Chu also shared pedagogical activities specifically designed for e-writing, including Pin it for practising component splitting and character assembly, and Speechify, an AI text-to-speech tool that supports linking character form and pronunciation. He also presented his team’s self-developed PYT, a full-pinyin tone-input method designed specifically for second-language learners.

The lecture concluded with a lively Q&A session, during which Professor Chu offered detailed responses to questions from the audience.

This event marked the inaugural session of the XJTLU Public Lecture Series on International Chinese Education. The Chinese Language Teaching Division at XJTLU will continue to invite leading scholars to share cutting-edge topics in the field, building a high-level academic exchange platform. Faculty, students, and colleagues across the sector are warmly invited to stay tuned and join future events.