Liu Yang (astronaut) Astronaut Centre, stating that this is a preference but not a strict limitation. Liu has been described as an eloquent speaker, an avid reader and also a lover of cooking. Liu Yang (astronaut) Liu Yang (born October 6, 1978) is a Chinese pilot and astronaut who served as a crew member on the space mission Shenzhou 9. On June 16, 2012, Liu became the first Chinese woman in space. Liu was born in Zhengzhou, Henan in 1978, into a worker's family of Linzhou, Anyang origin. She graduated from PLA Air Force Aviation University in Changchun. Liu joined the PLA Air
Chinese as a foreign language Chinese in Europe. In 1837, Nikita Bichurin opened the first European Chinese-language school in the Russian Empire. Since then sinology became an academic discipline in the West, with the secular sinologists outnumbering the missionary ones. Some of the big names in the history of linguistics took up the study of Chinese. Sir William Jones dabbled in it; instigated by Abel-Rémusat, Wilhelm von Humboldt studied the language seriously, and discussed it in several letters with the French professor. Local Chinese variants were still widely used up until a Qing dynasty decree in 1909 that mandated Mandarin as the official language of