China News Service, Nanjing, September 5 (Reporter Liu Yue) In Jinling in early autumn, a gentle breeze blows. From September 2nd to 4th, the second “Belt and Road” People-to-People Connect Forum hosted by the European and American Alumni Association was grandly held in Nanjing, Jiangsu. Adili Kawkenov, a well-known scholar from Kazakhstan, was invited to attend the forum and deliver a keynote speech.
As a senior sinologist, he has personally experienced the two-way journey between China and Kazakhstan for more than 20 years. Outside the podium, this scholar who loves Chinese martial arts and chess and is familiar with China's development story, in his three roles of experiencer, witness and promoter, recounted the vigorous changes in the Silk Road interconnection over the past 20 years, telling a unique story of China-Kazakhstan mutual understanding.
“Now there is no one who doesn’t know Kazakhstan”
Adili's fate with China started very early.
In middle school, he was fascinated by history and geography, especially studying Eastern culture. After graduating from college, Adili chose to continue his studies at Shandong Normal University—because Shandong is the hometown of Confucius, and he wanted to experience the historical context and the sage's philosophy there. Later, he entered Peking University to study for a master's degree. In Adili's view, it is not enough to understand China in words. To understand China, one must take root in China and integrate into reality.
In 2002, he came to China for the first time. "There was no high-speed rail at that time," he recalled. "It took two and a half days to get from Almaty to Urumqi. We stayed in Urumqi for a day or two, and then took a very slow train to Beijing." That year, he was bumpy on the train for a week, and the scenery outside the window changed from grassland to Gobi, and then to the city. It was during those long journeys that he pieced together his knowledge of this country bit by bit.
There was one detail that impressed him to this day. At that time, if he told Chinese taxi drivers that he was from Kazakhstan, they would often look blank. "They don't know what country this is, they don't know where it is, and they don't know whether the relationship between the two countries is good."
More than twenty years later, everything has changed. Adili laughed heartily: "Now if I say that I am from Kazakhstan, they will say, ah, I know, it is a 'Belt and Road' country.'"
Behind the change in just one sentence is the cognitive leap of an entire generation. "Now, they know that our president, Mr. Tokayev, studied in China and attended Beijing Language and Culture University. He speaks Chinese so well and standardly." Speaking of this, Adili said with a kind of sincere pride.
This two-way flow of cognition also occurs among young people in Kazakhstan. "Twenty years ago, if you asked young people in Kazakhstan whether they knew about Chinese movies, many people would answer no. But now, they all know "Nezha". Chinese animation, film and television dramas, and online literature are becoming more and more popular in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. They are starting to read Mo Yan's works and books by other Chinese writers."
More importantly, young people no longer just "see" but start "connecting". Through platforms such as Xiaohongshu and WeChat, young people in Kazakhstan have found Chinese friends.
"In our time, it was very difficult to come to China. We didn't know how to get there, how to stay in a hotel, and how to pay." Adili said with a smile, "Today's young people are braver than us. For example, when I was in Nanjing, I saw tourists from Kazakhstan and students from Central Asia. They know how to use Xiaohongshu to find good hotels and how to buy tickets using WeChat."
"Nowadays, young people have more and more exchanges with China. I think in 10 or 20 years, the next generation will understand China better, and the Chinese people will understand them better."
“If you don’t speak Chinese, you will get less knowledge”
The craze for learning Chinese is sweeping across Central Asia.
Adili told reporters that 99% of children in Kazakhstan and even Central Asian countries receive multilingual education since childhood. In the past, the third language was usually English; now, Chinese has become a popular language "learned from an early age".
"Because China has now brought new knowledge to Central Asia and the world." Adili cited two examples, AI and drones. "In the past two years, AI has changed our thinking, and drones have also changed our lives. But if you want to really reap these results, you must speak Chinese. If you don't speak Chinese, you will get less knowledge, and you cannot communicate directly with Chinese teachers and Chinese experts."
In his opinion, learning Chinese is to open a new world for yourself. He himself speaks five languages and knows that one more language means another dimension of understanding the world. He often encourages his students with an old Chinese saying: "As long as you work hard, an iron pestle can be ground into a needle."
Behind this enthusiasm for language learning are real career prospects. "In Central Asian countries, many economic, trade, science and technology, and cultural projects require high-level professionals who understand Chinese laws and the Chinese economy." In Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the salaries for relevant positions are quite good. Students have seen this and come to China to study not only culture, but also practical majors such as petroleum, economics and trade, and artificial intelligence.
Adili himself is the best example. As the head of Kazakhstan’s “One Belt, One Road” Research Center, he shuttles between China and Kazakhstan all year round, visiting China six or seven times a year. From the long and bumpy cross-border journey in 2002 to the "China Speed" that now takes five hours directly from Beijing to Shanghai, from the poor rural areas in his memory to the modern villages that are clean and tidy with advanced logistics, he has witnessed China's great changes with his own eyes.
"Many people ask me if I have only been to beautiful Chinese cities. In fact, I have been to many rural areas in China, and China's rural areas have changed the most!" He said, "Rural society has changed, and farmers' ideas have also changed. Now every rural area is so clean, and farmers use the Internet to sell things. This is something you couldn't imagine twenty or thirty years ago."
Knowledge is also infrastructure
Having been deeply engaged in sinology research for more than 20 years, Adili’s understanding of the “Belt and Road” has already gone beyond concrete infrastructure projects. In the keynote speech of the forum, he proposed a concept: knowledge is also infrastructure.
He said that when it comes to the "Belt and Road", what people usually see are the lines of railways, highways and pipelines on the map. But beyond images, there is an equally important level - mutual understanding between language, profession, knowledge, history and society.
“Knowledge infrastructure includes university courses, research centers, libraries, archives, translation results, expert networks, and stable and continuous communication channels between professionals.” He said in his speech. “Like transportation infrastructure, it can also shorten distances, but what it shortens is the distance between different languages, political systems, legal cultures, and social cognitions.”
This is his most profound experience in more than 20 years of sinology research. The task of sinologists is not only to translate words, but also to interpret political concepts, historical intentions and social meanings. "We are people who build bridges, eliminate cultural barriers, and help people of different nationalities understand each other."
And the results of this understanding are emerging at an alarming rate.
As a scholar, Adili is accustomed to using data to speak. He gave a comparison: In Kazakhstan, international logistics only accounted for 1% of the employment structure in the past, but now it has exceeded 13%. "This is what has changed since we participated in the joint construction of the 'Belt and Road' initiative." He said, "The trade exchanges between Kazakhstan and China have long been more than just bilateral relations, and have developed into large-scale regional and even subcontinental level cooperation projects."
The figures for people-to-people exchanges are equally astonishing. Adili recalled that he went to Shandong as an international student when he was young. "At that time, I was the only Kazakh student in Shandong Province. Today, there are about 18,000 to 20,000 Kazakh students studying in China, and the number continues to grow."
"Now when you go to any province or university in China, you will definitely see international students from Kazakhstan and Central Asian countries. Unlike when I was alone, when international students come to China now, they can see compatriots everywhere, and they will have a sense of intimacy in their hometown."
In the in-depth construction of the China-Central Asia community with a shared future, countless young people from Central Asia are taking advantage of the east wind of the Silk Road to pursue their dreams and gain growth. In Adili’s view, this is the change brought about by the “One Belt, One Road” initiative and multi-field cooperation between China and Central Asian countries, and it is a “realistic result that has been seen with one’s own eyes.”
On the day he left Nanjing, Adili might once again think of the green train that shook for more than a week more than 20 years ago. From slow cross-border travel to one-day direct flights, from an overseas student studying alone to a Sinologist who has influenced thousands of young people, he has been on this road for more than 20 years. This two-way Silk Road, paved with hardware infrastructure and built with bridges of knowledge and humanity, has made countries separated by mountains and seas finally become neighbors with connected hearts.
What he hopes is that more young people will follow the same path. "Youth are our future." He said, "If only the older generation is advancing the work and there is no new generation to continue research and practice, we will have no future. Young people have a broader vision, work harder, and are braver than us."
From ancient times to the present, the Silk Road has always been a two-way road. Commodities, capital, technology, and ideas are flowing, and so is knowledge. Among all flows, the most precious thing is the enthusiasm of generations of people traveling across mountains and seas to reach each other. When sinologists are no longer rare, when international students can be seen everywhere, when the phrase "'Belt and Road' countries" becomes a tacit understanding on the streets - people-to-people connections will no longer be a grand vision, but every handshake, every greeting, and every cross-border trust itself. This may be the best answer that Adili has spent more than 20 years developing.
