hanghai International Studies University (SISU) launched its foreign-language portal websites (http://global.shisu.edu.cn)on December 19 with new features after half a year’s revision, marking the university’s 65th anniversary with a new and global digital identity.

SISU set up 21 portal websites, which are also the most among Chinese colleges: English, Russian, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, Persian, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Swedish, Dutch, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Turkish, Hindi; and started trying to make them become a well-known part of SISU’s global network.

Besides offering information of admissions and research, the websites set a new column where a CCTV’s English documentary “China in Transition” (subtitled and dubbed by SISU translation team) to show China’s image, and a Shanghai’s promotional video“10 Min to Know Shanghai,” were published.

Jiang Feng, Chair of SISU’s University Council, said that the websites intend to improve the foreign language teaching, promote the Chinese culture and help the world more clearly hear China’s voice.

The layout and translation of the websites’ contents follow the linguistic and cultural customs of the target languages so that the information can be easily understood and more often consulted by foreign readers.

Responsive web design (RWD) is used to provide an optimal viewing experience of the websites – easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning and scrolling – across a wide range of devices (from mobile phones to desktop computer monitors).

A consistent visual identity (VI) is used in the front-end of the websites. Back-end technologies of Hypertext Markup Language 5 (HTML5), in line with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards, are used to help build up models of multilingual websites with good stability and website security.

Cao Rongrui, Director for Office of CPC Publicity of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, said he hopes SISU will provide other universities with models and directions of setting up foreign-language portal websites, which includes the translated proper nouns of higher education with Chinese characteristics, common columns, and management and maintenance systems.

During the process of website construction, the data of foreign visitors to the sites being tracked and analyzed to optimize the design and content.

SISU student Mario Alejandro Arce Lanao, from Peru, accessed the university’s Spanish site using his mobile phone, saying that the website is good in design and language expression. 

Another international student, Zakire Özkan of Turkey, also excitedly said that it is convenient to get the information of study and life in her mother tongue from SISU’s Turkish website.