Since their beginning in 2005, Confucius Institutes (CIs) have been set up to teach Chinese language classes in more than 100 American colleges and universities, including large and substantial institutions like Rutgers University, the State Universities of New York at Binghamton and Albany, Purdue, Emory, Stanford, and others. In addition, there are now about 500 sister
It’s hard to believe, but ChinaFile is almost two years old. It’s been an exciting year for us, and, as ever, an eventful year for China. It was a year of muscular leadership from Xi Jinping, who has now been in office just over two years and who appears to be successfully consolidating his power within the Chinese Communist Party as he tightens his grip on a whole range of
On September 27, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong read aloud a letter written by President Xi Jinping at a ceremony in Beijing celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Confucius Institute (CI) program, an international chain of academic centers embedded in partner schools abroad, yet funded and operated by the Chinese government. The letter was celebratory, lauding the CIs
The Chinese government has spent billions of dollars in Africa on public diplomacy initiatives that are intended to improve the country’s image. Central to that strategy is the growing network of Confucius Institutes (CIs) spread across the continent that are designed to introduce Chinese language and culture to the African masses. Today, there are over 40 CIs in Africa but, despite their good intentions, these institutes attract significant controversy.
Goethe University post-doctoral research fellow Falk Hartig is an expert on CIs and the broader role they play in China’s cultural diplomacy overseas. Hartig joins Eric and Cobus to discuss whether cultural diplomacy is actually effective, particularly in China’s case.