The 10th Confucius Institute Conference was held in Shanghai from December 5 to 7. Liu Yandong, Chinese Vice Premier and Chair of the Council of the Confucius Institute Headquarters, attended the opening ceremony and delivered the keynote speech entitled “Cater to New Demand and Push for Integration—making contributions to promote the development of a diverse and colorful world civilization”. The opening ceremony was chaired by Yuan Guiren, Minister of Education. More than 2,300 university presidents and representatives of Confucius Institutes from over 130 countries and regions attended the conference . Han Shenghao, Vice President of SDU led a delegation to attend the conference.

Liu said that the Confucius Institutes' teaching quality, operational modes and appeal have been improved in 2015, building a bridge for communication and sowing seeds of friendship between Chinese people and people in the world. She called on related agencies to gradually localize the Confucius Institutes overseas, and reform teaching content and methods to adapt to foreign demands and better serve the public. Efforts should also be made to promote sustainable development of the institutes to enable them to contribute more to the harmonious coexistence of diversified civilizations, Liu noted.

During the conference, Han met with officials from Hanban and partner universities of overseas Confucius Institutes, and held discussions with Monhbat, Vice President of National University of Mongolia, and other officials of partner universities. The SDU delegation organized a Directors’ Forum for Chinese and foreign co-founders of Confucius Institutes. All participants conveyed their experience on the development of Confucius Institutes under the theme of “Cater to New Demand and Push for Integration”. They also attended the Annual Council of Confucius Institutes at Chungnam National University (CNU) and Dongseo University. Relevant documents were deliberated and passed, and the development plan of 2016 were jointly discussed. These two Confucius Institutes stated that on the premise of guaranteeing the normal running of fundamental work such as Chinese teaching and cultural activities, they would get more involved in the development plan of their universities, strengthen communication with SDU and conduct cooperation in fields like studies of Confucianism.

The SDU delegation also discussed work experience and improvement plan respectively with the attending representatives of Confucius Institutes at The National University of Mongolia (NMU), University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), University of Adelaide, etc. Relevant officials from College of International Education and Office of Confucius Institute of SDU attended these activities.

By cooperation with other countries, China has so far established 500 Confucius Institutes and 1,000 Confucius Classrooms in 134 countries on 5 continents with a total of 1.9 million students. At present, there are about 44,000 part-time teachers and 8 million enrollment users of online Confucius Institutes. SDU has established 8 Confucius Institutes with their own Confucius Classrooms in 7 countries and an independent Confucius Classroom in Thailand.

Translated by: Fu Xumeng, Li Ao

Photo by: Liu Ying

Edited by: Zhao Yan, Xie Tingting

Source: view.sdu.edu.cn, news.xinhuanet.com