Press Contact

SISU News Center, Office of Communications and Public Affairs

Tel : +86 (21) 3537 2378

Email : news@shisu.edu.cn

Address :550 Dalian Road (W), Shanghai 200083, China

Further Reading

China’s first museum of world languages at SISU promotes language culture


14 May 2021 | By Zhou Jiawen, Li Minghong, Feng Fanzhou, Mo Dijian | SISU

  • The virtual globe at the museum's entrance

    A projector casts a globe on a hemisphere on the ground and a welcoming video on a 270-degree surround-screen at the entrance.

  • Exhibiting venue in the museum

    Exhibiting venue holds various and abundant exhibits collected from alumnus, school’s archives and donors.

  • A replica of a papyrus sheet

    A replica of a papyrus sheet with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

  • Arabic version of “The Analects of Confucius”

    A copy of Arabic version of “The Analects of Confucius” translated by Ma Jian.

  • The simultaneous interpretation booth

    Visitor can learn about the process of simultaneous interpretation in the booth.

  • The reading kiosk

    The reading kiosk stands at the center of the venue. Visitors can react with a touch screen and a microphone inside.

  • Devices featuring language families

    Devices in the museum provide visitors with audio and video clips about all nine language families in the world.

  • Infograph about the Museum of World Languages

    Infograph about the Museum of World Languages

A

 virtual globe welcomes every visitor at the entrance of Museum of World Languages which is located at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU). It is the first museum featuring global linguistic diversity and housed by a university.

The museum sits at the southwest corner of SISU's Songjiang campus and shares an 18,000,000-square-meter area with the Museum of SISU History. It has been open to the public three days a week with free entry since December 2019.

The place aims to make language studies open to the public, according to Li Weifeng, director of the Documentation Center at the School of Asian and African Studies. Li also participated in the curation work.

Through a vast collection of heritage, artifacts, and video clips, the museum shows the history and diversity of verbal communication.

A replica of the Phaistos Disc, one of the earliest human scripts, was given by Greek Consul General Koniakos Vasileios on March 31st as a gift to the museum.

Different from the conventional forms of display, the museum creates an immersive setting through various high-tech installations, including a model of simultaneous interpretation booth.

The museum’s official social media released a video On February 21st, 2021, coinciding with Mother Language Day.

In the video, a reading kiosk drew much attention. With an advanced built-in speech recognition system, the installation guides a visitor to read after sentences in different languages, such as Vietnamese and Swahili.

"These pieces make what I have learned in class come alive and it is easier to understand," said Yang Yiling, who joined several guided tours to the museum in a course titled An Introduction to Linguistics.

The museum also houses a bookstore named SISU STORY. With the cooperation of Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, the store sells multi-lingual books focusing on language studies and international relations.

In China, on-campus museums have become the new cultural attractions in recent years. The total number of such museums is over 300, according to Guan Qiang, deputy director of the National Cultural Heritage Administration.

The Ministry of Education published a notice in 2011 that suggested the on-campus museum as an essential part of the public cultural service system.

Share:

Press Contact

SISU News Center, Office of Communications and Public Affairs

Tel : +86 (21) 3537 2378

Email : news@shisu.edu.cn

Address :550 Dalian Road (W), Shanghai 200083, China

Further Reading