In a speech on Thursday delivered before an audience mostly comprised of students at the Beijing International Studies University, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungarians are past masters of endurance and survival in Europe. The Prime Minister attended an unveiling ceremony for a plaque at the institution’s Hungarian Research Centre.
The Prime Minister said that “If a country has a history of thousands of years and is vast in territory such as yours, and has an enormous population such as yours, endurance and survival are almost daily routine; but for a nation which only numbers 15 million – including those who live beyond its borders – and which lies on a military crossroads of Europe, surviving for a thousand years is an extraordinary achievement”. He added that “I am standing here before you on behalf of an ancient European people. On behalf of a people which is extremely proud of its past”.
Mr. Orbán said that in Europe Hungary is seen as an eastern country, and is also referred to as the westernmost eastern nation, while from China’s perspective, Hungary is the easternmost western country in Europe. He said that Hungarian culture is a very specific mixture, combining in its fabric the historical roots tying it to the East, and Christianity, which created a home for it in European civilisation.
“For a Chinese person to hear that around two dozen students are learning Hungarian is hardly sensational news. Perhaps it does not even appear to be important; but to the ears of a Hungarian, this is very important news indeed”, the Prime Minister pointed out, explaining why, in his view, these twenty people are so important.
“The Hungarian people ask a question regarding their own existence which I believe a Chinese person would never ask themselves. We have been thinking for over a thousand years as to why we are in this world at all – in particular in the light of the fact that many a nation living side by side with us has disappeared, whose names we cannot even remember any more. Our answer to this question is that the Hungarian language and Hungarian culture are such special creations which would not exist anywhere in the world without us.
No one else speaks, no one else uses Hungarian, no one else has created culture in this language, no one else has created fine arts, music and architecture in the language of the Hungarian people. It is this speciality that gives rise to our existence, and therefore everyone who learns our language becomes part of Hungarian culture and reinforces the answer to the question of why Hungarians exist in the world at all”, Mr. Orbán concluded.
The Prime Minister expressed his thanks to the university for providing Hungarian language courses, and for creating the opportunity for a few people to acquaint themselves “with this extremely complex language and culture”. Mr. Orbán started his visit in one of the institution’s lecture rooms, where he observed a class and spoke to the students about the values of Hungarian culture.
The Government presented books to the university, while the Prime Minister himself received the gift of an ornamental scroll featuring an ancient text.
Mr. Orbán said that he had arrived in China, together with the prime ministers of another 15 Central and Eastern European countries, to attend an economic forum: the 16+1 summit held in Suzhou in East China. He said that attendees at the summit were primarily concerned with ways in which China would participate in the lives of the European people – especially in the lives of Central and Eastern European people.
Mr. Orbán had a bilateral meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang on Wednesday, and on Thursday was received – together with the heads of the rest of the region’s countries – by Chinese President Xi Jinping.