Heilongjiang province is launching a project to encourage more people to use the internet to learn the steadily dwindling languages of some ethnic groups.

The first course in the use of a learning platform for the preservation of the Oroqen language and culture in northeastern China concluded recently in Tahe county. The two-day course attracted about 60 representatives, including experts, officials, teachers and Oroqen people.

The language is only spoken; it has no written form. There are about 3,900 Oroqen people in Heilongjiang, accounting for 45 percent of all Oroqen people nationwide.

Although there are no exact numbers, research indicates that there are “very few people who can speak the Oroqen language”, said Liu Jie, who planned the project. “Most people younger than 50 do not speak the language anymore.”

“Despite government efforts to protect minority languages, these languages are in danger of disappearing due to modernization,” said the retired civil servant, who works for the provincial ethnic affairs authority.

Starting in June last year, the Heilongjiang Ethnic Affairs Commission began to build an online platform offering free learning materials to those interested in learning the dying ethnic language. After a year’s trial run, the platform was officially rolled out in late July.

“Through the platform, anyone who registers can obtain free learning sources, including recordings based on the textbook, vocabulary in Chinese and English, and cultural displays,” he said.

To promote the use of the platform, the commission organized a training course and received positive responses.

“It is a platform that can provide accurate and scientific learning methods for those who want to study the language,” said Guan Jinfang, 62, a master of Oroqen folk songs, dancing, traditional costumes and paper-cutting, as well as Shaman dancing and costume.

“The older people, like me, can speak it fluently,” she said. “But the younger generations of Oroqen are becoming similar to the Han people, and few of them can speak the Oroqen language. I hope the Oroqen traditions can be continued generation by generation.

“Furthermore, in the internet era, the platform provides easy access to spread the Oroqen language and culture all around the world.”

Mo Renjie, 21, a junior at Wuhan University of Technology, is an Oroqen from Heilongjiang. He said he is ashamed every time a classmate asks him to speak his ethnic language.

“I can only speak several words in Oroqen due to the lack of a language environment and good learning methods,” he said. “I registered on the platform the first time I heard about it, and I will introduce the platform to my classmates.”

Liu, the platform project planner, said more training courses will be organized. In the next stage, his team will expand the platform to include other ethnic minority languages, including Hezhe, Daur, Ewenki, Kirgiz, Xibe.

China’s first cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-1 has successfully released a tiny satellite while in orbit, CCTV reported.

China’s first cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-1 blasts off from Wenchang Space Launch Center in South China’s Hainan province, April 20, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

It is the first time that a Chinese cargo spacecraft has successfully discharged a satellite after storing it for a long time. The Tianzhou-1 was launched into space with the CubeSat on board on April 20 and released it Tuesday, 104 days later.

Scientists have tested different kinds of discharge technology, such as the separation and unlocking and connectivity between the in-orbit launcher and the satellite.

CubeSat is an experimental satellite weighing less than 1 metric ton.

After flying with the Tiangong-2 space lab for about two months, Tianzhou-1 separated from the space lab and entered a stage of independent operation in June.

Tianzhou-1 is orbiting about 390 kilometers above Earth, conducting a variety of experiments.

The spacecraft will later carry out an automated fast-docking with Tiangong-2 and conduct the third refueling of the space lab.

For village official Zhou Shuangzheng, failing to keep the rivers clean in his community in Zhejiang province means he will be held accountable under a new regulation issued by the province’s legislature last week.

Zhou, secretary of the Party branch of the village of Zhoucun in Yongkang, is one of the province’s about 60,000 “river chiefs” responsible for protecting the 40,000 rivers and lakes in Zhejiang. On Friday, the Zhejiang People’s Congress re¬viewed and passed the regulation on river chiefs.

It is the country’s first such provincial regulation since the Communist Party of China Central Committee issued a guideline on river chiefs in December. Under the plan, local government officers will be named river chiefs and will be responsible for dealing with water pollution.

President Xi Jinping has attached great importance to environmental protection and ecological civilization as the country seeks to better balance economic growth and green development.

During his latest domestic inspection tour to Shanxi province in June, Xi called on the whole nation to plant trees to improve the ecology.

“If everyone plants several trees, and every year witnesses plantings in several places, then after a number of years, the homeland will have more green, with more beautiful hills and improved people’s livelihoods,” Xi said.

In March, Xi, together with other senior leaders, joined members of the public, including primary school students, to plant trees in an eastern suburb of Beijing ahead of Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, on April 4.

“We expect blue sky, white clouds, clean water and fresh air, which are all related to ecological construction. The people should live in green shade, and this is the goal of our efforts,” he told the students.

During a study session in May attended by members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Xi listed six key tasks, including speeding up the transformation of growth models and intensifying antipollution measures to push for green development and green lifestyles.

The country, he said, should protect the environment “like one protects his eyes” and treat the environment “like one treats his life”.

China should reject the development model that damages and even destroys the environment and reject practices that boost short-term economic growth at the cost of the environment, he said.

“Clear waters and lush mountains are as valuable as gold and silver,” Xi said while inspecting Zhejiang’s Anji county in 2005, when he was the province’s Party chief.

Green development is among the country’s five development concepts put forward by the CPC Central Committee in October 2015, together with four other concepts — innovation, coordination, opening-up and sharing.

Ecological civilization was listed along with economic, political, cultural and social progress as one of the five goals in the country’s overall development plan at the 18th National Congress of the CPC in late 2012.

The key tenets of ecological civilization include the need to respect, protect and adapt to nature; a commitment to resource conservation; environmental restoration and protection; recycling; low-carbon use; and sustainable development.

China will actively develop clean energy and improve energy efficiency to push green development and lifestyles, Xi said in a congratulatory letter to the Eighth Clean Energy Ministerial and the Second Mission Innovation Ministerial on June 7.

Clean energy development is crucial to the improvement of energy structure, energy security and the promotion of ecological civilization, Xi said in the letter.

China has focused on its ecological civilization drive over the past five years, both institutionally and practically.

Last year, the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform, headed by Xi, passed about 20 reforms to advance ecological progress.

The country has pledged to cut its carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 60 to 65 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 and raise the share of non-fossil energy use in total consumption to about 20 percent.

More than 10 provinces have zones under the protection of the ecological red line. Sichuan and Guizhou provinces marked 40 percent and 32 percent, respectively, of their land areas as protected by the red line.

Meanwhile, routine central and local environmental inspection campaigns have urged authorities and businesses not to lose momentum in pollution control.

Xiao Qi, 38, an English teacher at No 11 Senior High School in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, didn’t hesitate to open his arms to catch a 6-year-old girl who fell from a third-floor window on Sunday as she leaned out to call to her grandfather.

Six-year-old Mei Qingwen (left) is treated in the ICU at No 1 Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University. Xiao Qi (right) shows how he tried to catch the falling girl.[Liu Mingxin/For China Daily]

On Wednesday, the girl, Mei Qingwen, was in the intensive care unit of No 1 Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, with kidney and lung damage and skull fractures, according to her grandmother, Yu Huilan. But the girl’s condition seemed to be improving.

“Fortunately, my granddaughter is now out of danger and has regained consciousness,” Yu said. “The doctor said Xiao’s heroic action greatly reduced the damage.”

Xiao explained the details:

“On Sunday afternoon, as I was on my way home, I saw a girl leaning out the window on a building’s third floor,” he said. “I attempted to warn her with a loud shout, but she looked flustered and didn’t seem to be listening.”

Mei was born with a hearing disability and only learned to speak after undergoing cochlear implant surgery to provide some sound through a tiny electrical device.

But the implant was out of power at the time, so she couldn’t hear Xiao.

“I was not thinking about anything,” Xiao continued. “I acted on instinct to save her life.”

Xiao sustained minor injuries to his arm as a result of the forceful impact of the catch. He was able to slow her descent considerably but couldn’t hold on.

“If I had caught her better, maybe she would be less seriously injured,” he said with evident remorse.

Xiao dialed the emergency 120 number and left without a word after the ambulance arrived.

Yu, the grandmother, wanted to find the identity of the hero and asked a local broadcasting station for help the next day.

“My neighbors told me only that he was a middle-aged, medium height and wore glasses,” Yu said. “Working with many people together, we finally found him.”

“I can’t express my thanks with simple words,” she said. “I can’t imagine what would have happened without his help. He is the savior of my whole family.”

Yu said that when the girl found that she had been left alone by her grandfather, who was going to the market, she wanted to signal to him through the window.

Xiao was passing by at the time and acted quickly to catch her when she fell.

His colleagues at the high school were not surprised.

“Of course, he’d rush to help. He’s very kind and willing to help others. He is a provincial-level excellent teacher, and in June we recommended him to be named among the city’s Teachers of the Year,” said Wang Zuosheng, the principal.

“In my mind he is always my hero,” said Peng Ana, Xiao’s wife. “This is not the first time he’s saved someone’s life.”

Peng recounted an incident in the winter of 2003. Xiao found a young girl who seemed to be having thoughts of suicide on a busy traffic bridge. He spoke patiently with her. Finally the girl changed her mind.

Li Bing, a physics teacher at Harbin No 3 High School was quoted in the Heilongjiang Morning Post saying the girl, who weighed about 20 kilograms, would generate as much as much as 75 kilograms of direct force in a fall of three stories.

Netizens praised Xiao’s heroism. “Such a good deed is a ray of sunshine that warms and encourages us,” one person posted. “He is really the most beautiful teacher in the city, and I believe virtue will be rewarded.”