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Esperanto in China dates back to the lateQing dynasty, and remains active in China. During the early People's Republic of China, policymakers viewed Esperanto as a means to engage readers and intellectuals in the non-socialist countries and, after the Sino-Soviet split, in countries aligned with the USSR.
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Esperanto was imported to the Qing dynasty along with other western inventions, and mainly from Russian merchants in Harbin. It was brought from Chinese students who studied overseas, in Japan, France, and Britain. The first attested Esperanto courses in China were held in Shanghai in 1906. Shanghai later became the birthplace of the Chinese Esperanto Association in 1909. The association was active during theXinhai revolution, with the education minister of the Republic of China,Cai Yuanpei, ordering Esperanto to be taught in Chinese schools as an elective course. Cai later invitedVasili Eroshenko to be an esperanto instructor at Beijing University. In 1923 the Beijing Esperanto College was founded. Esperanto also played a pivotal role in national liberation movements in China during the Sino-Japanese war of 1937, with the sloganper Esperanto por la liberigo de Ĉinio (transl. for the liberation of China through Esperanto). The Esperanto movement was also popular amongChinese anarchists such asBa Jin,Li Shizeng, andLiu Shifu. After the PRC takeover, the China Esperanto League was founded in 1951, but the support of the communist government initially waned. The first ever national Esperanto meeting was held in 1963. This led to a lot of Esperanto courses being opened in 1964. The movement faced another challenge during the cultural revolution due to the arrest of esperantists.[1][2]
People's Republic of China publishes its official magazineEl Popola Ĉinio, which began its publication in 1950.[2][1] The role ofEl Popola Ĉinio and other publications in Esperanto increased following theSino-Soviet Split, with the rationale that editions in Esperanto could more easily enter the countries deemed revisionist than editions in Russian, French, or English.[3]: 80
In 1962, Chinese policy discussions emphasized Esperanto as a way to reach non-socialist foreign intellectuals.[3]: 80
The peak amount of Esperanto learning in China occurred in the 1980s, but its prominence decreased as emphasis onteaching English in China increased.[4]
In 2018,Zaozhuang University began allowing students to major in Esperanto.[5] In 2023, in all of China, only Zaozhuang University still had a department dedicated to teaching Esperanto. In January 2023, that department had 24 students. That enrollment decreased after asocial media influencer mocked the program the following month.[4]
In 2012, a museum to Esperanto (Esperanto Museum [de;eo]) was established at Zaozhuang University.[5]