Editing Chinese language (section)

== As a foreign language ==
{{Main|Chinese as a foreign language}}
[[File:Chinese Language Training at CASA.PNG|thumb|upright=1.35|Yang Lingfu, former curator of the [[National Museum of China]], giving Chinese language instruction at the [[Civil Affairs Staging Area]] in 1945]]

With the growing importance and influence of China's economy globally, Standard Chinese instruction has been gaining popularity in schools throughout East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Western world.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4617646.stm |work=BBC News |title=How hard is it to learn Chinese? |date=17 January 2006 |access-date=28 April 2010}}</ref>

Besides Mandarin, Cantonese is the only other Chinese language that is widely taught as a foreign language, largely due to the economic and cultural influence of Hong Kong and its widespread usage among significant Overseas Chinese communities.{{sfnp|Wakefield|2019|p=45}}

In 1991, there were 2,000 foreign learners taking China's official Chinese Proficiency Test, called [[Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi]] (HSK), comparable to the English [[University of Cambridge ESOL examination|Cambridge Certificate]], but by 2005 the number of candidates had risen sharply to 117,660<ref>{{in lang|zh}} {{lang|zh|"汉语水平考试中心：2005年外国考生总人数近12万"}}, [http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2006-01/16/content_160707.htm Gov.cn] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119094121/http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2006-01/16/content_160707.htm |date=19 November 2018 }} [[Xinhua News Agency]], 16 January 2006.</ref> and in 2010 to 750,000.<ref>{{cite news |title=Chinese language proficiency test becoming popular in Mexico |url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-06/27/c_13951048.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629055803/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-06/27/c_13951048.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 June 2011 |access-date=12 September 2013 |last=Liu |first=Lili |work=Xinhua |date=27 June 2011}}</ref>