Confucius Institute

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Confucius Institute

Confucius Institute logo
Founded	2004
Type	Educational Organization
Focus	Chinese culture, Chinese language
Location	129 Deshengmenwai Street, Xicheng District, Beijing, P.C. 100088, China
Area served	Worldwide
Method	Education
Owner	The Office of Chinese Language Council International (also known as "Hanban")
Website	www.confuciusinstitute.net

Confucius Institute (simplified Chinese: 孔子学院; traditional Chinese: 孔子學院; pinyin: kǒngzǐ xuéyuàn) is a non-profit public institute which aims at promoting Chinese language and culture and supporting local Chinese teaching internationally through affiliated Confucius Institutes. Its headquarters is in Beijing and is under the Office of Chinese Language Council International (colloquially, Hanban (汉 办)).

After establishing a pilot institute in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in June 2004, the first Confucius Institute opened on November 21, 2004 in Seoul, Republic of Korea and many more have been established in other countries, such as the U.S., Germany and Sweden, where Chinese enjoys an increasing popularity. The most recent opening was at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 19, 2008. The first Confucius Institute in South Eastern Europe was opened in August 2006 in Belgrade, Serbia ^[1] . As of November 2009, there were 282 Confucius Institutes and 272 Confucius Classrooms in 88 countries and regions.^{[2] [3]} The Office of Chinese Language Council International (generally known as "Hanban") estimates that there are more than 40 million people learning the Chinese.^[4] The Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China estimates that, by the year 2010, there will be approximately 100 million non-Chinese worldwide learning Chinese as a foreign language, and it plans to set up 500 Confucius Institutes worldwide^{[5] [6]} Hanban aims to establish 1,000 Confucius Institutes by 2020.^[7]

Hanban is also pushing to support K-12 programs as well. One such school, in Medford, Oregon in the United States, launched the first "Confucius Classroom." US-China Today published a feature article on it entitled "Mobilizing Confucius". St. Mary's, a private school, began the program with a 50,000ドル Hanban grant.

The Confucius Institute has received some criticism from several political and academic circles. When the University of Sydney was negotiating with the institute, some critics feared that it would exert influence over academics on behalf of the Chinese government and preferred that it be separated from the Chinese studies department. For instance, "Jocelyn Chey, a visiting professor at Sydney and former diplomat, regards the Confucius institutes as a propaganda vehicle for the Chinese communist party, and not a counterpart to the Goethe Institute or Alliance Française." ^[8] Some, but not all, universities have concerns about political motivations and academic freedoms. The University of Pennsylvania never applied to host an institute, and G. Cameron Hurst III, the former director of Penn's Center for East Asian Studies, said, "There was a general feeling that it was not an appropriate thing for us to do. We feel absolutely confident in the instructors that we train here, and we didn't want them meddling in our curriculum." ^[9]

The Institute has also attracted concern from some foreign governments. Members of the Swedish Riksdag expressed concerns that the Institute provides a platform for the Chinese government.^[10] Subsequent to establishing a Confucius Institute at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, The Monitor (Montreal) revealed, "A newly declassified intelligence report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says Beijing is out to win the world's hearts and minds, not just its economic markets, as a means of cementing power." ^[11] India rejected the Chinese offer to establish institutes in Indian schools: "China's proposal is to expand its 'Confucius Institute' of language teaching into India. But the Indian government suspects that this is a Chinese design to spread its soft power – widening influence by using culture as a propagational tool."^[12] . "^[13] .

Journalists have also faulted the calculated use of Confucius and the Confucius Institute. The Asia Times Online reported, "In short, in the early 21st century, Confucianism is an assistant to the Chinese god of wealth (and a representative of Chinese diplomacy) but not a tutor for Chinese souls."^[14] The Economist noted the irony of the Chinese Communist Party using Confucius to name the institute. "Mao vilified Confucius as a symbol of the backward conservatism of pre-communist China. Now the philosopher, who lived in the 6th century BC, has been recast as a promoter of peace and harmony: just the way President Hu Jintao wants to be seen. Li Changchun, a party boss, described the Confucius Institutes as "an important part of China’s overseas propaganda set-up". ^[15]

The Michigan State University Confucius Institute has entered the virtual world Second Life to create an "educational island" for learners of Mandarin using simplified characters as of 2007.

Listed by alphabetical order according to country of location.

• V. Bryusov Yerevan State Linguistic University [3]

• University of Adelaide [4]
• University of Melbourne [5]
• University of New South Wales [6]
• University of Sydney [7]
• University of Western Australia [8]

• University of Vienna [9]

• North South University [10]

• University of the West Indies (Cave Hill Campus)^[16]

• Belarusian State University

• Group T-International University College Leuven [11]
• Université de Liège [12]
• Brussels China Academy [13]

• São Paulo State University [14]

• Sofia University [15]

• British Columbia Institute of Technology [16]
• University of Waterloo [17]
• Confucius Institute (Moncton, New Brunswick).[18]
• Dawson College & Université de Sherbrooke [19]
• Edmonton Public Schools [20]
• McMaster University [21] [22]
• School District 43 Coquitlam [23] [24]

• University of the Andes, Colombia, Bogotá [25]

• University of Costa Rica [26]

• University of Havana

• Suez Canal University

• University of Helsinki [27]

• L’Université Paris 7-Denis Diderot [28]
• University of Poitiers, Poitiers [29]
• Institut Confucius de Bretagne [30], Rennes

• Free University of Berlin [31]
• Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nurenberg [32]
• University of Duesseldorf [33]
• University of Duisburg [34]

• Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest [35]

• University of Iceland, Reykjavik

• Jawaharlal Nehru University

• Jakarta Confucius Institute, Announced September 28, 2007.^[17]

• University of Tehran

• University College Dublin [36]

• Tel Aviv University [37]

• University of Rome La Sapienza [38]
• Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa [39]
• Ca' Foscari University, Venice [40]

• University of the West Indies (Mona Campus)^[18]

• Aichi University [41]
• Hokuriku University [42]
• Obirin University [43]
• Ritsumeikan University [44]
• Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University [45]
• Sapporo University [46]
• Waseda University [47]

• Nairobi University [48]

• Confucius Institute at Saint-Joseph University (CIUSJ) [49]

• Huaxia Chinese Culture College [50]
• UANL-CCL [51]

• Université Mohammed V-Agdal [[52]]

• Kathmandu University [53]

• Confucius Institute The Hague [54]

• University of Auckland [55]

• University of Bergen

• Pakistan National University of Modern Languages [56]

• Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru [57]
• University of Piura [58]
• Universidad Catolica Santa Maria of Arequipa [59]

• Ateneo de Manila University [60]
• Bulacan State University [61]

• Jagiellonian University [62]
• Technical University of Opole [63]
• Adam Mickiewicz University [64]
• University of Wrocław [65]

• University of Minho [66]
• University of Lisbon [67]

• Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu [68]

• Novosibirsk State University [69]
• Blagoveschensk State Pedagogical University [70]
• Kazan State University [71]
• Tomsk State University [72]

Other locations of Confucius Institutes in Russia :

• Moscow
• Saint Petersburg
• Vladivostok (Far Eastern National University)
• Novosibirsk
• Irkutsk
• Ulan-Ude

• Kigali Institute of Education [73]

• Confucius Institute in Belgrade [74]

• Nanyang Technological University [75]

• Stellenbosch University [76]

• Kangwon National University [77]
• Keimyung University [78] Announced April 25, 2007
• Daehul University [79] Announced June 19, 2007
• Chungbuk National University [80] Established on September 28, 2006
• Woosong University [81]
• Dong-A University [82]
• Dongseo University [83]
• Honam University [84]
• Chungnam University [85]
• Confucius Institute in Seoul [86]

• Stockholm University [87]

• Universidad Autónoma de Madrid [88]

• Chiang Mai University [89]
• Kasetsart University [90]
• Confucius Institute at Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen University [91] (in Thai)
• Prince of Songkla University [92]
• Prince of Songkla University, Phuket Campus [93]
• Chulalongkorn University
• Burapha University
• Mae Fah Luang University
• Mahasarakham University
• Betong Municipality
• Bansomdejchaopraya Rajchabhat University
• Traimit Wittayalai High School
• Suan Dusit Rajchabhat University at Suphanburi

• Bogazici University [94]
• Middle East Technical University

• Kyiv Shevchenko University
• Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University

• Cardiff University [95]
• University of Central Lancashire [96]
• London School of Economics [97]
• University of London [98]
• University of Manchester [99]
• University of Sheffield [100]
• University of Wales, Lampeter [101]
• The Confucius Institute for Scotland in the University of Edinburgh [102]
• The Confucius Institute at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust [103]
• The Confucius Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine in London South Bank University [104]

• Arizona State University [105]
• Chicago Public Schools [106]
• China Institute (New York) [107]
• Cleveland State University [108]
• Community College of Denver [109]
• Emory University [110]
• George Mason University [111]
• Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) [112]
• Kennesaw State University [113]
• Miami University, Ohio [114]
• Michigan State University [115]
• New Mexico State University [116]
• North Carolina State University [117]
• Pfeiffer University [118]
• Portland State University [119]
• Presbyterian College [120]
• Purdue University [121]
• Rutgers University [122]
• San Diego State University [123]
• San Francisco State University [124]
• Texas A&M University [125]
• Troy University [126]
• University of Akron [127]
• University of California, Los Angeles [128]
• University of Hawaii [129]
• University of Iowa [130]
• University of Kansas [131]
• University of Maryland [132]
• The University of Memphis
• University of Massachusetts [133]
• University of Michigan ^[19]
• University of Minnesota [134]
• University of Nebraska–Lincoln [135]
• University of Oklahoma [136]
• University of Pittsburgh [137]
• University of Rhode Island [138]
• University of South Carolina [139]
• University of South Florida [140] [141]
• University of Wisconsin-Platteville [142]
• University of Utah [143]
• Valparaiso University [144]
• Wayne State University ^{[20] [21]}
• Webster University [145]

On November 5, 2009, The University of Michigan celebrated the opening of its Confucius Institute.

On March 26, 2009, San Diego State University unveiled the Confucius Institute for southern California and Baja California. Zhou Wenzhong, the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S., and the Chairman of Xiamen University attended the unveiling ceremony at SDSU, .^[22]

On January 31, 2008, Wayne State University opened its new Confucius Institute, becoming the second one in Michigan (the first is Michigan State's).^{[23] [24]}

A second Confucius Institute in Alabama is being planned for the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

http://www.ur.umich.edu/0809/Aug17_09/07.php

• Alliance française
• British Council
• Goethe-Institut
• Instituto Cervantes
• Instituto Camões
• Instituto Caro y Cuervo
• Società Dante Alighieri
• Japan Foundation

• Confucius Institute Online
• China National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

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