The puzzle of Confucius’ speedy journey to the West

    After brewing for a long time, the Confucius Institute Headquarters was formally established in Beijing on the 9th. The headquarters is located at No. 129 Deshengmenwai Street in Beijing. The Chinese State Councilor Chen Zhili became the chairman for the board of the Confucius Institute Headquarters. According to the Constitution of the Confucius Institute, the Confucius Institute Headquarters is the top administrative organization for all Confucius Institutes in the world.

    Since the unveiling ceremony of the world’s first Confucius Institute in Korea, more than 120 Confucius Institutes have been established or being established in the last 3 years. This phenomenon is a result of many foreign countries understanding China after learning Chinese and catching practical “Chinese opportunities” on one hand and the flexibility in the running of different Confucius Institutes on the other.

    However, during the “fast march” of the Confucius Institute, some shortcomings have been exposed too. For instance, there was no Confucius Institute Headquarters. Presently, Confucius Institute is promoted internationally by Hanban, which is a sub-organization of the Ministry of Education; some Confucius Institutes use “wrong” textbooks; besides, limited by resources, dispatched Chinese teachers are far from enough …

The Confucius Institute does not have any financial problems

    Since the establishment of the first Japanese Confucius Institute at Ritsumeikan University, China and Japan have cooperatively established 6 Confucius Institutes until now.

    From the global perspective, the Confucius Institute is a fresh new phenomenon. Since Germany, France and Britain have already established their language teaching organizations overseas for many years, many people would naturally make comparisons between the Confucius Institute and the language teaching organizations of other countries.

    120 Confucius Institutes have been set up in the world within one and a half years, while the Goethe Institute of German spent over 50 years to establish 140 institutes. Are there potential overheated bubbles in the lightning development of the Confucius Institute?

    Vice director of the Confucius Institute at Obirin University of Japan, Yang Guangjun told Global: “Normally, investments should be made one after another, but presently, Confucius Institutes have been established before any return is seen. Although it is new and innovative, teachers will inevitably have worries about the results.”

    However, an official from the Education Division of the Chinese embassy in Japan Hu Zhiping felt that Japan will not establish the institutes quickly. This is because both cooperative sides would complete their researches before they sign the agreements to establish any Confucius Institutes in Japan.

    Confucius Institutes in Japan will be managed by the Japanese. The condition of cooperation is that the Japanese universities bear the financial responsibilities. Before the Japanese proposes to co-establish a Confucius Institute, they will carry out a basic investigation on the future development of the institute because objective social demand is the foundation and precondition for the establishment of a Confucius Institute. The Japanese would also consider the returns and self-benefits when cooperating with the Chinese. This is very normal. Although the Confucius Institute is a nonprofit organization, a consistently money-losing operation will not survive long. 

    In Japan, the Confucius Institute will usually establish a board. The chairman of the board and the director of the institute will be held by Japanese while the Chinese dispatches the vice chairman for the board and the vice director for the institute.

    Hu Zhiping felt that since both sides are working together, the Chinese are not requesting for an independent legal representative for the Confucius Institute, but do insist on the financial independence of the institute. Although the Confucius Institute is a nonprofit organization, it is acceptable for them to charge for their services because after all they do provide teaching services to registered students and the society, but making a profit is not its purpose. We do not advocate commercializing the contents either. So far, we have not heard from any universities in Japan telling us that they have encountered financial problems.

    “Apart from providing funds and dispatching teachers, the Chinese side will also provide books, the necessary facilities, and some copyrights related to the Confucius Institutes including textbooks and exams,” Hu Zhiping added.

Need to establish brand name courses

    Under the rising global Chinese heat, the Confucius Institute has emerged as fate wielded. With the birth of the Confucius Institute, the population of Chinese language learners also increased dramatically. The Confucius Institute at Hokuriku University of Japan was founded in April 2006. Director Yan Hongsheng told Global that the city Kanazawa, where the Hokuriku University is located, is a tourist desination. There were many Chinese classrooms located inside and outside the city. At the beginning, he was worried about the difficulty of recruiting students. But in fact,  the Confucius Institute at Hokuriku University had recruited more than 300 students within one year.

    Since the facilities are ready, and the students have arrived, what need to be considered next is the teaching. But the Confucius Institutes in Japan do not have a set of suitable textbooks yet. Yan Hongsheng said that most courses in Japan’s Confucius Institutes are targeted at working people. Some of them are company employees who need to learn Chinese for work purposes, others are learning Chinese because they want to study in China or visit China, and there are also quite a few retired older learners. The demands are diversified. However, the current domestically published Chinese language textbooks designed for foreign learners are primarily for European and American children. The content of these textbooks do not reflect the life of the Japanese people. Therefore, there is an urgent need to publish textbooks with Japanese features.

    The Confucius Institute at Hokuriku University uses Japanese textbooks during their lectures for working people. The Vice Director Yang Huangjun said that there is a wide range of Japanese textbooks and there are also textbooks at the advanced level, all of them are related to life of the Japanese and therefore they are more practical. However, if working people are to use the domestic Chinese textbooks, they will have to spend several years just to complete the elementary level. Because the learners cannot feel a sense of achievement, they will not have the driving force to continue learning.

    Hu Zhiping also admitted that the pressing issue is to develop more pertinent courses and textbooks that can be the brand for Confucius Institute. He said that this is an overall problem for the Confucius Institute. Since the Confucius Institute is a brand name and supported by the government, it should have its own brand name courses. It is reported that new courses and new textbooks will be in the market soon after fully considering the demands of different places. The Confucius Institute will not use the same set of textbooks all over the world. In the future, there are also considerations to develop textbooks suitable to the needs of the Japanese with Japan, since there are relatively more Japanese learning Chinese.

“Core purpose of Japanese language Center is not to compete with Chinese language”

    According to a recent report by the domestic media, The Japanese International Exchange Fund will increase the number of Japanese language Centers overseas just like the way China promotes the Confucius Institute so as to prevent Japanese language from lagging behind Chinese languge. Minister of Japanese Language from Ministry of The Japanese International Exchange, 嘉数胜美 pointed out during his interview with Global that either offering assitance to Japanese language learners or teaching Japanese directly overseas, the purpose of The International Japanese Exchange Fund is to enable foreigners to learn more about Japan and to establish friendly and peaceful relationships, and not to compete with Chinese language.

    This perspective was accepted by the Confucius Institute. Yan Hongsheng thought that it is natural for a country to introduce her own language and culture according to other countries’ demand. She said that the Confucius Institute has a short history, lacks experience and is still fumbling around. But the International Exchange Fund has been established for more than 30 years, and has rich experience in promoting its mother tongue and culture overseas. These two organizations can certainly learn from each other and develop together.

    Hu Zhiping indicated that we have always and will continue to welcome other countries including Japan to introduce their languages and cultures to China. However, this is not a one-way street, we should cooperate with one another.

    However, the Western countries do not promote their languages and cultures in the same way. Basically, they organize and invest independently. Hu Zhiping felt that even if we want to learn some of these “experience” from the Western countries, we can’t “like Japan’s establishment of the Japanese research centre in Beijing, it is very good in depth and scope. But all the facilities, textbooks and even professors are provided and dispatched by the Japanese. The cost is simply too high, we can’t afford it.”

    Finally, Hu Zhiping concluded that the Confucius Institute must employ different methods in different countries. “For example, in Africa, you cannot expect us to use the same cooperative method we use with Japan. Even if we are to cooperate with Africa, the Chinese government will definitely bear more of the financial cost. This is very normal.”

Each Japanese Confucius Institute exercise own uniqueness

    Among all the Confucius Institutes in Japan, except the Confucius Institute at Sapporo University (established at the end of 2006) and the Confucius Institute at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (to start classes in April 2007), all the other four Confucius Institutes have attracted students of varying ages from different backgrounds with their unique features.

    The Confucius Institute at Obirin University is offering credit courses that can lead to a degree. The students recruited to these courses are for authorized by Japan Science and Technology Agency using the quota for college students. The students who have studied in the Confucius Institute for one year, on passing their exams, can continue their next year of study majoring in Chinese language for foreign exchange students in their Chinese cooperative university, Tongji University, or transfer into Obirin University as a Chinese major. The credits they have earned from the Confucius Institute can be transferred as university credits.

    At Hokuriku University, apart from teaching those majoring in Chinese language, the second foreign language for all registered students is Chinese. The lectures of the Confucius Institute are free to all registered students. At the same time, the institute values the friendly exchanges between the youths of both countries including primary and secondary school students and also help local high schools set up Chinese language courses.

    The Confucius Institute at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University offers general Chinese language lectures to the society as well as some higher level, more advanced lectures that introduce Chinese culture and economy.

    Aichi University is located next to Toyota, the city where the headquarters of Toyota Company is located. The Confucius Institute at this university caters mainly to the staff of the company.

    It is reported that other than considering absorbing the teaching of Chinese language in Sapporo University into the Confucius Institute at the university, they will also be offering Chinese language courses and lectures on Chinese cultural knowledge to the society. Besides, tourism is a backbone industry for the economic development of Hokkaido area, so the Confucius Institute will pay more attention to the grooming of talents for the tourism industry.

    As the only Japanese university where half of their student and teacher population are foreigners, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University plans to offer Chinese language courses to these students from over 70 countries through the Confucius Institute.

    The Chinese official from the Education Division of the Chinese embassy in Japan, Hu Zhiping told Global that we have provided a platform for our Japanese partners to teach Chinese language and culture. As for the development of specific teaching methods and content, it all depends on each university’s discussions with their Chinese partner university and their unique circumstances. We encourage the development of unique educational methods.