"We know that in this global reality everyone needs to know additional languages, as many languages as possible. Mandarin is one of the important world languages for business and any kind of social activity in our world."

Shirley Chan, a Hong Kong migrant who works as the Coquitlam Library's multicultural services librarian, has been given the task of going through and chronicling the thousands of news books and DVDs that were delivered from China in a shipping container.

They included such well-known titles as "The Red Detachment of Women" and "Story of Mulan", among others, but also books on Chinese cooking, calligraphy, culture, World Heritage sites, history, as well as dictionaries and idioms and set phrases.

"It's a very good cross-section of China past and present," Chan said. "There's stuff here not only for Chinese people, but also for people who want to learn Chinese. It's a good way to learn through these wonderful books and DVDs and all these learning materials as well."

"We really appreciate Hanban that donated all those wonderful books to us. We really appreciate their generous donation."

Richard Stewart, the mayor of Coquitlam, a 125,000-population city about 10 kilometers east of Vancouver proper, added the donation would go a long way to spreading the knowledge and understanding of China in the community.

Coquitlam's Chinese community numbers about 15,000.

"Our community is one of the most multicultural in the world. We celebrate the fact that people have come from all corners of the world to live here," said Stewart of the municipality, a sister city to Laizhou in Yantai, Shandong province.

"It (the Confucius Classroom program) reflects the fact that our connections with China are enormous. Not only the people who live here who have Chinese backgrounds, but also the fact that we are Canada's Pacific Rim community and this fosters that understanding of China and that this century will be centered in the Pacific rather than the Atlantic. I look forward to improving the understanding of cultures across the Pacific and this is one excellent opportunity. We are certainly appreciative of it."

(Xinhua June 10, 2010)