Teaching Chinese Around the World has been included in the book series “Teaching Chinese Language to Spread Chinese Culture” funded by Beijing Philosophy and Social Sciences Research Base, which can be regarded as a memoir recording the author’s nearly 50 years’ teaching experience. It mainly involves several parts including “The struggle of several generations of BLCU”, “The spirit of passing the torch of teaching”, “The teaching experience around the whole world” and “The shining star of language and culture”. It tells not only the development history of Chinese teaching in BLCU from the perspective of a participant, but also the efforts made by the author to carry out Chinese teaching and spread Chinese culture, covering both the records of sincere feelings between the author and her students and the deep memories of her mother and teachers.

Li Ai is an associate professor at Beijing Language and Culture University and the Chinese Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Havana, Cuba. Professor Li’s main research focuses on teaching Chinese as a foreign language and comparison between Chinese and foreign languages. She has taught basic Chinese, translation, writing, listening, advanced Chinese and many other courses, wrote the textbook New Methodology of Learning Chinese Language, and published many papers in TCSOL Studies and Language and Culture Research.

With simple words, the author Li Ai profoundly recalls her nearly 50 years of international Chinese language teaching experience in many countries in Asia, Europe, America and Africa, especially in Cuba. Some of her students have become diplomats and ambassadors to China, and some have embarked on the same path of teaching Chinese language as her. The stories collected in this book are rich and moving, which allow readers to learn relevant teaching knowledge and enrich their own experience in a relaxed and pleasant state.

It is recommended for learners, researchers and practitioners majoring in international Chinese language education, and other adult readers interested in the exchange of Chinese and foreign languages and cultures.