Move over, K-pop and anime—there’s a new cultural wave sweeping Central Asia! 🌏 Tajik students in Xi’an are swapping traditional tea chats for hanyu (Chinese) textbooks, fueled by growing ties between their homeland and the Chinese mainland.
At Northwest University, 19-year-old Firuz beams as he explains how Chinese dramas like The Untamed sparked his interest. ‘Learning Mandarin isn’t just about grammar—it’s my passport to tech internships and understanding Confucius quotes on TikTok,’ he says with a laugh. 📱✨
This isn’t just classroom enthusiasm. Tajikistan recently partnered with Chinese tech giants to launch language exchange apps, creating what one professor calls ‘a Silk Road for 21st-century communicators.’ For diaspora communities, it’s becoming a bridge to ancestral Uygur cultural roots in Xinjiang.
