Originally published on English.news.cn 2013-11-18 17:55:49
JINAN, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) – China’s first Esperanto museum has officially opened after more than two years of construction to promote the “universal language”.
The Esperanto Museum, at Zaozhuang University in the Shandong Province of eastern China, opened on Saturday after accepting more than 7,000 visitors during a trial operation since May.
“With an exhibition area covering 680 square meters, the museum is the largest of its kind in Asia,” said Sun Mingxiao, who heads the institution.
It has more than 26,000 articles, including books, journals, photographs and manuscripts. Most of them were donated by Esperantists from more than 40 countries or regions.
Chen Haosu, head of the All-China Esperanto League, said the museum’s mission is to record the history of Esperanto, and to stimulate the culture of the artificial language and its development.
The museum was jointly built by Zaozhuang University and the All-Chinese Esperanto League at a cost of 3 million yuan (US$490,000).
Esperanto-related activities began at the university in 1980. Esperanto became an optional course at the university in 2011, attracting more than 500 students to date.
To date, about 400,000 Chinese have learned Esperanto, according to Sun.
Esperanto was created by Polish physician L.L. Zamenhof in 1887 and introduced to China in the early 1990s.