Indian envoy’s fluent Mandarin video tour of embassy goes viral in China

Beijing: A video of India’s new envoy to China, Vikram Doraiswami, giving a tour of the Indian Embassy here highlighting cultural and civilisational connect between the two countries in fluent Mandarin has gone viral on Chinese social media.

Doraiswami, 56, has become popular in China since New Delhi named him as new envoy in March this year, as the Chinese Foreign Ministry while welcoming his appointment highlighted his Chinese name.

“I noted that Ambassador Doraiswami has chosen a Chinese name for himself: Wei Jiameng”, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a media briefing here in March.

His Chinese name meaning “one who forms an excellent alliance” created a positive buzz on the Chinese official and social media.

This weekend Doraiswami posted a two-and-a-half-minute video on the embassy’s Chinese social media and X account introducing the various features and facets of the mission, including civilisational connection between the two countries in Mandarin.

Standing next to the bust of Rabindranath Tagore, Doraiswami recalled Tagore’s visits to China over a century during which the Nobel Laureate called for the awakening of Asian culture and people.

Tagore emphasised India and China are home to world’s ancient civilisations with distinct and diverse cultures, music, theatre, fine arts and cuisines, the envoy said.

The two are the two world’s most populous countries who are very unique in terms of cultures, he said, and invited Chinese to take part in embassy events.

His video received a lot of positive response with most netizens calling for restoration of e-visa facilities.

“We wish for enduring friendship between China and India and every success to the Ambassador in his work,” said one person.

“We hope India can further ease visa procedures to facilitate greater people-to-people exchanges between the two countries,” said another.

Doraiswami previously worked as India’s High Commissioner to London.

A Mandarin speaker, he served both in Hong Kong and Beijing diplomatic missions in his early career as a diplomat. He served as Third Secretary in Hong Kong earlier where he earned an elective diploma in Chinese from the New Asia Yale-in-Asia Language School.

Doraiswami’s appointment comes amid efforts by the two sides to rebuild relations that came under severe strain following the over four-year military standoff in eastern Ladakh in April 2020.

In the last few months, India and China have stepped up efforts to stabilise their relations, seeking a reset after the 2020 military standoff in the Galwan Valley plunged ties to the lowest point in decades. The military stand-off effectively ended in October 2024.

Both the countries restored visa facilities and flight connections between various cities.