LAHORE: A TV ad shows a Chinese couple in Lahore trying to find common ground for connections until the woman, choosing to blend in with locals, cooks some Pakistani food, and win over friends.

One can find an influx of Chinese films on cable run channels. Of course, like Turkish drama serials these are dubbed in either English or Urdu. Now, with the advent of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects in Pakistan, more and more visitors from China can be seen everywhere.

For those reasons, the Chinese language is being embraced by the Pakistanis as private Chinese (Mandarin) language learning centres are cropping up left, right and centre.

The Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Tevta) has allotted 47 institutes in 23 districts of Punjab. The Punjab University’s Confucius Institute, National University of Modern Languages, the Government College University and the University of Central Punjab are also offering Mandarin courses.

Tevta received 11,000 applications for Chinese language course this year; Tevta Chairperson Irfan Qaiser Sheikh says that by the next year, they would end up teaching the Chinese language to 30,000 students.

Rabia, a relationship manager in a bank, is taking classes too as she plans to do her PhD in China. “Today more and more Chinese projects are coming to Pakistan,” she says. “Not only would there be economic benefit in learning the language, but if for instance I go to China, I would need the language to communicate with the people there.”

Of course jobs are the biggest pushing force.

“If I know the language, especially as a bank officer, it would be a great help, and I know I could easily get a higher salary package.”

Most of all those who know Chinese can easily become language teachers too. A lot of the students are just business persons, with aims of reaching a bigger market.

Adnan, who has an import/export business, is interested in reaching the Chinese market. “If I want to meet my counterparts from China, I must be able to use their language,” he says.

Many offices and companies are also encouraging their employees to learn the language so that they may expand as a whole, says Adnan.

The government has patronised the language to a large extent and is slowly introducing Mandarin in public schools, colleges and universities, including the University of Punjab.

“Chinese is the new English,” says Farooq, a freshman at the varsity.

“Even those who don’t know English are learning Mandarin because it has more opportunities than English will have for us now. The West has nothing for us. We must look towards our own side to help strengthen our market.”

Huda, a schoolteacher, is also open to this new beginning. “We must build cultural ties with China as our neighbor and sooner or later we must be ready for marriages and other forms of cultural links,” she says. “Already, if we speak Chinese then we automatically connect to a history and civilization that is thousands of years old.”

One woman has found a religious reason for learning the language.

“I want to learn the language so that I can translate the Holy Quran into Chinese, and then be able to answer questions,” she says. “I can use it as a missionary language as well.”

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2018