CRI听力:Abacus Nominated for Intangible Cultural Heritage

The Chinese tradition of making tabulations via an abacus, known as Zhusuan here in China, is up for consideration to be listed as World Intangible Cultural Heritage.
 
CRI's Alexander Aucott has more.

The nomination was made by the United Nations Education Science and Culture Organization, or UNSECO.

The final result will be announced early December.

With a history of more than 18-hundred years, the abacus is considered the world's most ancient computer.

Experts are calling for preserving the time honored invention which has been slowly fading away from people's lives.

Su Jinxiu is the deputy director of Chinese Abacus and Mental Arithmetic Association.

"The abacus can perform addition, subtraction, division and multiplication, and can also make powers, extract roots and solve Gauss equations. But there are only a few people learning it now."

Su adds the abacus has been a major calculating device for centuries.

The abacus even helped Chinese scientists to make calculations in the 1960s when China developed its first nuclear bomb.

In the 1990s, abacus lessons were made compulsory in primary schools, but later became a selective subject.

Experts say by figuring out results with an abacus in mind, children can improve their intelligence.

Wang Chaocai is consultant of the association.

"Those children are amazing. They can do additions on many numbers in one second."

Abacus calculation was listed as a Chinese national intangible cultural heritage in 2008.

It is now considered as an auspicious symbol of wisdom and wealth in China.

For CRI, I'm Alexander Aucott.