Celebrating 10 years of Confucius Institute

Chinese language teacher Ruth Njeri from the Confucius Institute in University of Nairobi speaks during the 9th Confucius Institute Conference in Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province, Dec. 7, 2014.

Born with the times and growing in great vigor

When P.R. China was founded, an institute specialized in teaching Chinese as a foreign language was set up, a number of majors in this field were offered, and students from the Third World countries, namely, Asian, African and Latin American countries, were enrolled to study Chinese in China, which thus has played a vital role in uplifting the cooperation, exchanges and friendship between China and these countries.

Since Reform and Opening-up policy was adopted, the National Leading Group of Teaching Chinese as A Foreign Language was founded by the State Council in 1987, comprising of 11 ministries and commissions of the central government, to further strengthen the leadership on this front. However, due to China’s ever-expanding opening-up, sustained rapid economic growth and its rising international status, the sharp rise in demand of Chinese language learning has outstripped the original language instruction and operation model. Given this situation, the National Leading Group made a decision in March, 2003, to set up Chinese language education institutions overseas, which were named “Confucius Institutes”. In 2004, the first-ever Confucius Institute was inaugurated in the world, indeed born with the times.

To name these overseas Chinese language education institutions after Confucius was for the following considerations: First, Confucius is a great thinker and educator in ancient China as well as one of the most renowned cultural figures in the world. Therefore naming after him would bestow these institutions the inherent visibility and ease of communication. Second, the name is actually the only perfect choice because when mentioning Confucius, people would naturally think of his profound thoughts and education theory. Third, the Confucian thoughts like “harmony is the most precious” and “harmony with uniformity” embody unique compatibility and inclusiveness. Therefore, naming after him would help us express unequivocally the aspiration for a world with everlasting peace and common prosperity. And finally, naming after a famous cultural figure is a common practice of other countries’ language and cultural promotion institutions such as Goethe Institut, Instituto Cervantes.

The practice of the past 10 years proves that the decision to set up Confucius Institutes conforms with the trend and inherent law of development, which leads to its full-fledged growth in all continents of the world.