Wo Hui Mandarin shines at World Chinese Language Conference
The World Chinese Language Conference themed "Chinese for the world, openness into the future" from 7-9 December 2023 brought together more than 2000 delegates from over 160 countries. The event was hosted at the China National Convention Center in Beijing by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China.
The conference concluded on Saturday with a keynote speech by the First Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China, Ding Xuexiang, stressing the importance of language in building bridges between nations and celebrating the Chinese language as belonging not just to China but also to the rest of the world.
The Minister of Education of China and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huai Jinpeng; Deputy Minister of Education, Director of the National Language and Script Work Committee, and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chen Jie, along with approximately 2000 other attendees including domestic and foreign experts, government officials, representatives of international organisations, and heads of international language and cultural institutions, participated in the conference.
The organisers included Chinese Testing International (CTI), who are responsible for HSK: the world’s most popular Chinese language proficiency tests. HSK Mock is the official mock testing platform for HSK and was developed last year by CTI in partnership with Wo Hui Mandarin, which is a part of the Education in Motion Group (EiM). One year on, Education in Motion was honoured to be celebrated by CTI as a Best Partner of the Year, and Wo Hui Mandarin to receive an Outstanding Contribution Award from CTI for HSK Mock.
Deputy Minister of Education and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chen Jie; Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of Center for Language Education and Cooperation, Ministry of Education, Ma Jianfei; Deputy Director of CLEC, Ministry of Education, Hu Zhiping; Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of CLEC, Ministry of Education, Song Yongbo, and other leaders visited and provided guidance at the Chinese Testing International HSK & HSK MOCK exhibition booth.
Mr Fraser White, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EiM, was invited to join CTI for the official launch of their new website, chinesetest.cn, which features HSK Mock alongside HSK.
Mr White was invited to give an address at the opening session of the Conference, in which he emphasised the ever greater importance of language learning and testing for bridge-building and developing relationships between China and the rest of the world in this age where artificial intelligence is able to translate with increasing speed and accuracy. 
The Chairman and General Manager of CTI, Dr Li Peize, and the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wo Hui Mandarin, Ms Annabel Parker(杜宏霞), together launched HSK Mock 2.0, which now includes functions for teachers and support for the Alipay and WeChat payment systems that are preferred by users in China. They were joined on stage for the launch by Mr Liu Xiaolong and Ms Huang Lei, Deputy General Managers of CTI; Mr Tim F Nash, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Wo Hui Mandarin; Prof Luo Jian Bo, Dean of the International Exchange College at Fudan University; Prof Yue Da Li, Dean of the College of International Education at the University of Petroleum (Beijing); Mr Jia Wei Wei, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Sinolingua Press; Mr Chen Ying Zhong, General Manager of VIMISS from Vietnam; Mr Cai Chang Jie, Chairman of BKPBM; and Mr George Zhang, Vice-Chairman of the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching; with other distinguished representatives of universities and partners from both inside and outside of China in attendance.
In his comments at the launch, Dr Li shared particular things that had moved him over the last year: first, the Wo Hui logo which is the Chinese character 会 (“Hui,” meaning “can”) stylised as a mountain peak above the clouds. This he said brought to mind a favourite line from a famous Tang dynasty poem: “会当凌绝顶，一览众山小” which captures the feeling of being on top of the world enjoyed by those who see through a challenge like learning Chinese; second, Wo Hui Mandarin’s support of CTI in promoting HSK and HSK Mock at exhibitions around the world and his desire that the HSK tests be the means to Chinese becoming the bond that joins people together in friendship which he expressed in the phrase: “把中文做成情谊，把考试做成道。”
In the parallel forums which followed, Ms Parker presented on the HSK Online Test and Chinese Language Digital Education Services, of which HSK Mock is an integral part; while Mr Nash gave a presentation on the Global Development of HSK Tests and the role HSK Mock is playing in making those tests more accessible.
