General Preface

International Chinese education has experienced vigorous development in the past few decades.It has achieved remarkable results，as seen by the rapid increase in students enrollment and their improved learning quality.One telling example is the continuous diversification of learning needs，and the tendency towards in-depth specialization.How to design textbooks for different professional fields and meeting diverse learners’ language and knowledge needs is a significant challenge to international Chinese education.Based on years of teaching experience，the teachers from Xi'an University School of Literature have recently developed a series of textbooks tailored to meet the needs of students of different majors，especially the learning needs of advanced-level learners，in the hope of properly combining the learning of Chinese language with exploration of professional knowledge.

While editing the Silk Road Chinese series of textbooks，the Editorial Board members from different fields of humanities，familiar with the current situations of Chinese teaching materials and fully considered the opinions of researchers，Chinese teachers and international students，designed a series of Chinese textbooks such as Chinese Literature，Chinese History，Chinese Art，Chinese Movies，Chinese for Tourism，Chinese for Young Children，Chinese Character Culture，Business Chinese，etc.

The first and principal feature of this series of textbooks is diversity of topics.Because it includes multiple disciplines，it does not pursue uniformity in the compilation style.As the Silk Road Chinese series of textbooks，the content is based in Xi'an，and integrates cultural topics across the country，covering both regional and national themes.Secondly，it draws extensively on the latest researches in various fields and existing related textbooks，providing readers with many supplementary reading materials like “have a read”.Thirdly，there are many pictures complementing texts，which helps to explain unfamiliar cultural concepts to students.This series introduces the Chinese language and culture to the outside world，in a format that both readable and conversational achieved.Finally，some textbooks are designed with practice sessions，allowing students to make artworks related to the text content，etc.：and some chapters include “ take a look” parts，utilizing local cultural resources to integrate book learning with extracurricular activities such as museums visit and historic sightseeing.These activities will motivate students’ enthusiasm to learn Chinese culture.

In short，the Silk Road Chinese series of textbooks have demonstrated new thoughts and methods of Chinese teaching.I am recommending this series to all the researchers，teachers and learners of Chinese language.

Liang Xia
December，2020
From St’ Louis

（Liang Xia，a teaching Professor at Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures，head of Chinese Language Program，Washington University，USA：Board member of Chinese Language Teachers Association，USA）