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Despite the waning interest in the language, there are New Zealanders who are still learning it.
“There’re a lot of Chinese people around me, and Chinese culture in Auckland and near where I live, (it's) something I see so it makes me more curious,” said third-year engineering student Rebecca Fitzpatrick, who took a summer class this year at the University of Auckland.
For others, the reasons are more pragmatic.
“I went on a school trip to China because I’m a business student and we learned about the strong connections between New Zealand and China," said final-year engineering and commerce student Matthew Edwards, who was also inspired by his Mandarin-speaking sister.
"I think it’s an increasingly important language especially if you’re living in the Pacific,” he said.
While Mandarin learning may be decreasing in the West, reports suggest the language is going strong in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia made Mandarin learning compulsory in secondary schools last year, joining the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Iran, which have added the language to the national curriculums. In Southeast Asia, Mandarin is taught in all Singapore schools, remains robust in Malaysia, and also shows signs of gaining popularity in Vietnam and Indonesia.
Head of Mandarin Language and Chinese Culture at University of Al Azhar Indonesia Feri Ansori told CNA’s East Asia Tonight that many Indonesian students are willing to learn the language because they believe it can benefit their businesses in future.
“China has been Indonesia’s top trading partner and a major source of investment. So, it is a very good opportunity for the Indonesian students to learn Chinese,” he said.
He added that while technology has been developing, it may not be able to translate Mandarin accurately. This is given that Mandarin is a language where the same word could have different meanings based on tone, he said.
“Learning Mandarin will be immensely helpful for anyone who wants to get ahead in their business ventures,” he said.
TAIPEI - Taiwan President Lai Ching-te asked China on May 20 to stop its military and political threats, saying in his inauguration speech that peace is the only choice and that Beijing had to respect the choice of the Taiwanese people.
Mr Lai, addressing the crowd outside the Japanese-colonial-era presidential office in central Taipei, repeated a call for talks with China, which views the democratic island as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under Beijing’s control.
“I also want to urge China to stop intimidating Taiwan politically and militarily, and to take on the global responsibility with Taiwan to work hard on maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the region, to ensure the world is without the fear of war breaking out,” he said.
“We also want to declare this to the world: Taiwan makes no concessions on democracy and freedom. Peace is the only option and prosperity is our goal for long-term peace and stability.”
There was no immediate reaction from China, which repeatedly called Mr Lai a “separatist” risking war in the run-up to his election in January.
Taiwan has faced pressure from China, including regular air force and navy activities near the island, since the election victory by Mr Lai, 64, who is widely known by his English name, William.
Mr Lai, who took over from Ms Tsai Ing-wen having served as her vice-president for the past four years, said people must be realistic about the threat and Taiwan must show its determination to defend itself.
“Fellow citizens, we have the ideal to pursue peace, but we must not have illusions,” he said. “Before China gives up using force to invade Taiwan, citizens must understand this: Even if we accept all of China’s claims and give up our sovereignty, China’s ambition to annex Taiwan will not disappear.”
Mr Lai received loud applause after reiterating that the Republic of China - Taiwan’s formal name - and the People’s Republic of China are “not subordinate to each other”, a line Ms Tsai also took.
Taiwan’s defence ministry, in its daily report on May 20 about Chinese military activities in the previous 24 hours, said six Chinese aircraft had crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line, which previously served as an unofficial boundary but that China says it does not recognise.
At least one of the aircraft got within 43 nautical miles (80km) of the northern Taiwanese port city of Keelung, according to a map provided by the ministry.
In attendance at the ceremony will be former US officials dispatched by President Joe Biden, lawmakers from countries including Japan, Germany and Canada, and leaders from some of the 12 countries which still maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, like Paraguay President Santiago Pena.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken congratulated Mr Lai, saying the United States looked forward to working with him “to advance our shared interests and values, deepen our longstanding unofficial relationship, and maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”.
Taiwanese fighter jets flew in formation over Taipei after Mr Lai’s speech.
At the end of the ceremony, Mr Lai and Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim, formerly Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the United States, led the crowd in a sing-along to pop songs as they danced onstage with the other performers.
Mr Lai wore a purple tie, representing a butterfly native to Taiwan, and a yellow pin on his lapel of mustard flowers, a common plant in fields across the island.
He received seals symbolising his presidential power from the parliament speaker, including the seal of Republic of China and the seal of honour, both brought to Taiwan after the Republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong’s Communists.
Last week, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Mr Lai, whom it called the “Taiwan region’s new leader” had to make a clear choice between peaceful development or confrontation.
Late on May 19, widely read state-backed Chinese newspaper the Global Times said Mr Lai could become “more and more provocative” once he takes office.
“So in the long term, the state of cross-straits relations will not be optimistic,” it said in an online commentary.
Mr Lai’s domestic challenges loom large too, given his Democratic Progressive Party lost its parliamentary majority in the January election.
On May 17, lawmakers punched, shoved and screamed at each other in a bitter dispute over parliamentary reforms the opposition is pushing. There could be more fighting on May 21 when lawmakers resume their discussions. REUTERS
Israel has imposed a siege on the long-blockaded Gaza Strip, depriving its 2.4 million people of normal access to clean water, food, medicines and fuel, the suffering eased only by sporadic aid shipments by land, air and sea.
"We are living through a humanitarian catastrophe in every sense of the word," said Rafah resident Rinad Joudeh, 41, decrying "destruction, fear and terror" nearly two weeks into the Israeli incursion into the city.
The head of the UN agency helping Palestinians said that "despite all the calls by the international community not to launch an offensive in Rafah, in reality an offensive started on May 6".
Since then, "we have again about half of the population of Gaza being on the road forced to flee" for safety once more, though "we keep saying there is absolutely nowhere to go," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Amman.
"There is absolutely no safe place in the Gaza Strip," he added.
Joudeh said people heading for a declared "humanitarian zone" in Al-Mawasi were "walking into hell".
"There is nothing there but suffering, problems and hardship."
Lazzarini said that because of the fighting, "almost nothing in terms of aid is crossing" into Gaza, raising fears that recent gains made "to prevent a looming famine ... might quickly be reversed".
Truck arrivals have slowed with the Rafah crossing with Egypt closed since Israel launched its operation in the city.
Aid has begun entering via a temporary US-built floating pier, where shipments sent from Cyprus are offloaded for distribution.
The United Arab Emirates said Sunday a shipment of "252 tonnes of humanitarian relief supplies for the people of Gaza was successfully unloaded" after sailing from the Cypriot port of Larnaca.
The UN's humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths warned that if dire fuel shortages are not alleviated, the "famine which we have talked about for so long, and which is looming, will not be looming anymore. It will be present".
"Our worry ... is that the consequence is going to be really, really hard," he told AFP in Qatar. "Hard, difficult, and apocalyptic".
TAIPEI: Hundreds of opposition supporters rallied in Taipei to protest four more years of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) rule on Sunday (May 19), the day before Taiwan inaugurates president-elect Lai Ching-te.
Lai will take the helm as Taiwan faces increasing diplomatic and military pressures from neighbouring China - which claims the self-ruled island as part of its territory.
But his administration will also have to work with a fractious parliament after voters in January revoked his party's majority in the Legislative Yuan.
Taiwan's biggest opposition group, the Kuomintang (KMT) - which has historically been regarded as friendlier to China - received one more seat than the DPP, while the upstart Taiwan People's Party (TPP) gained the role of kingmaker with eight seats.
Outside the DPP's headquarters on Sunday, supporters of the TPP held up guavas, called "ba le" in Chinese - which is also used to describe bad cheques.
The fruit symbolised the "empty promises" of the DPP, explained TPP leader Ko Wen-je.
"The DPP's empty promises have shown us their arrogance," he told supporters, calling the ruling party "scammers".
"We are taking to the street today because we feel so helpless with all the empty promises over the past eight years."
Protester Samuel Chuang, 35, said a lot of young people voted for DPP candidate Tsai Ing-wen back in 2016.
"But after eight years, when we see what has actually been done, we feel like there hasn't been much change," the engineer said.
"DPP betrayed us. It is not us that betrayed them."
GEORGE TOWN - Following a deadly attack at the Ulu Tiram police station in Johor, a potentially similar incident was thwarted in Penang on May 19, when a man tried to seize a firearm from a policeman.
Police are investigating the incident, which saw the 35-year-old man try to seize an HK MP5 submachine gun from a sentry at the Dato Keramat police station in George Town.
The man was apprehended after a short scuffle at around 4am on May 19.
The 35-year-old man was under the influence of alcohol, said Penang police chief Hamzah Ahmad.
He had initially approached the entrance of the police station while shouting obscenities at the policeman on sentry duty, demanding that he open the gate.
“Police personnel gave him a warning and advised him to leave the place, but the suspect moved towards him and tried to snatch an HK MP5 machine gun from him,” Datuk Hamzah said on May 19.
“However, the police personnel managed to ward him off. The suspect later took a helmet and tried to attack the policeman and was hurt in the scuffle when he was being apprehended.”
Mr Hamzah said the suspect had two criminal and drug-related offences on his record. Initial urine tests did not reveal any traces of drugs in his system.
An earlier police report said the man was being treated at Hospital Penang for a minor injury.
He will be detained until May 22 for further investigations, with possible charges for criminal intimidation, using a criminal force to obstruct a public servant on duty and disorderly conduct in a police station.
THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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