On September 29, 2010, the grand official distributing ceremony of the first Chinese-Latvian Dictionary has been held in the University of Latvia. H. E. Mr. Hu Yeshun, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the Republic of Latvia attended the ceremony and made a speech. H. E. Tatjana Koke, Minister for Education and Science, H. E. Mr. Andris Teikmanis, State Secreatry of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Honarable Marcis Auzinsh, Rector of University of Latvia, the Author and Creator of the Dictionary ProfessorPeteris Pildegovics attended the event and made speeches. The ceremony was chaired by Professor Leons Taivans, Head of Asian Studies Department of University of Latvia. The students and teachers from University of Latvia, Rīga Stradiņš University, Daugavpils University, Riga Culture Secondary School and Riga Secondary School # 68, Senior Officials from Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture of Republic of Latvia, Representatives from the media, culture and education circles of Latvia, more than 100 people, participated in the ceremony.
Ambassador Hu expressed his sincere respect to Professor Peteris Pildegovics for his assiduous work in the past 8 years for compiling and creating the Dictionary and stated that Professor Peteris Pildegovics has made outstanding contributions to the course of the educational exchanges between China and Latvia. Ambassador Hu pointed out that, being the first country in the Baltic region to start the Chinese teaching curriculum, the number of the Chinese language learners in Lativa is on the steady rise. There appeared the "Chinese language learning fever" in recent years in Latvia. Currently, there are three universities and three secondary schools have opened Chinese language learning curriculum in Latvia. The publishing of the Chinese-Latvian Dictionary is a great blessing to the learners of the Chinese language in Latvia. The publication of the dictionary will not only help to improve the quality of Chinese language teaching in Latvia, but will trigger the students' enthusiasm to learn the Latvian language in China also. The successful pubulication of the Dictionary is a historical event in the field of educational exchanges between China and Latvia. Ambassador Hu expressed his sincere thanks to University of Latvia, Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Han Ban/Confucius Institute Headquarters of China, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Ministry of Education of China, and the Commercial Press of China etc. for their assistance and support to the compilation and publication of the Dictionary. He pointed out that it's the joint efforts by various parties which made the final publication of the Dictionary a success. Ambassador Hu composed a poem (Attached hereafter) to express his sincere appreciation of the outstanding contributions by Professor Peteris Pildegovics.
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The Poem Composed by H. E. Mr. Hu Yeshun
Congratulations to Prof. Pildegovics on the
Distributing of the Chinese-Latvian Dictionary
Through winters and summers,
You worked day and night,
Annotating the words you forgot all about the food,
Compiling the dictionary without spleep,
What a great undertaking in the academia,
Benefiting the students worldwide,
You, Professor Pildegovics,
A great master in the boundless sea of learning.