The Hebrew University of Jerusalem—Department of Asian Studies “Confucius China Study Program” PhD Scholarship (original) (raw)

Confucius Institutes in the U.S.-Let 100 Flowers Bloom, Let a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend

2014

This a long version of a paper I wrote defending Confucius Institutes (CI) in the U.S., framed largely as a response to Marhall Sahlins’ article in the November edition of The Nation. Contrary to Sahlins and other detractors, I argue that: 1. China does not try to hide state control of its supervising organization (Hanban) or the main principles of its agreements; 2. Chinese aims for CIs are narrowly defined in unobjectionable "soft power" terms as the promotion of Chinese language and culture. As such it is irrational to charge the CIs with “censorship” for failing to offer programming on controversial political issues that are outside of their missions; 3. The nature of CI instructors as “visiting professors” follows normal university practice and does not make the university complicit in discriminatory hiring; 4. Charges that instruction in simplified characters is a political plot leaving US students only semi-literate in Chinese is a misrepresentation of the difficulty of shifting between writing systems; 5. Little evidence exists to substantiate concerns about the use of CIs for political propaganda. At the same time, Sahlins’ opposition to the expression of views that he finds objectionable (e.g. that Tibet is part of China) by CI staff seems more a violation than a defense of academic freedom. I conclude with the observation that the greatest threat is not CI restrictions on academic freedom but self-censorship by universities of topics seen as being offensive to their CI partners

THE CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE NETWORK

EDULEARN18. (10-th Annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies), 2018

The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of educational activity of the Confucius Institute Network, the study of the role of the Institute in the dissemination of educational programs, the Chinese language and culture outside the PRC. According to the Chinese authorities the growing economic power and political influence of modern China presuppose the promotion of China as a center of modern science and education. The functioning of the Institute under the patronage of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China creates a potential problem of defining the border between the enlightening and educational components in the Institute's activity and political propaganda. The Institute's striving for popularizing Chinese culture, introducing the broad masses of the population of other countries to the "Chinese understanding of the world" is often perceived as political context, and the Institute is viewed as an instrument of the foreign policy of the Chinese government. At the same time the educational and cultural activity of the Institute that works in more than 100 countries contributes to the intercultural communication of Chinese communities in these states and the local population. The Institute successfully integrates into the national education systems of many countries and implements numerous educational projects and programs. The authors note that despite the dynamic development, the Institute's final institutionalization has not occurred yet, and the format of activity varies from country to country, from university to university. The study attaches a high value to the Institute's contribution to interuniversity cooperation between Chinese universities and their partner universities abroad. The Institute has become China's platform for the emergence of Chinese education at the global level. Special attention is paid to the authors' consideration of the Institute functioning practice on the territory of Russia and in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Keywords: The Confucius Institute Network, educational programs and projects, popularization of the Chinese language and culture, Ministry of Education of the PRC, State Chancellery for the dissemination of the Chinese language, Russia, the CIS.