A Database-based Comparison And Evaluation Study Of Confucius Institutes In Southeast Asia

With the increasing political,economic and cultural strength of China,Confucius institute,as a Chinese language and Chinese culture promotion institution,has attracted more and more attention.Southeast Asia has a special geographical position and deep origin with China,which has the most overseas Chinese in the world.Because of the establishment of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and the Bank of Asian Infrastructure Investment,the countries in Southeast Asia and China's economic and trade exchanges have become increasingly frequent,in addition,the implementation of China's "the belt and road initiative" initiative,the countries in Southeast Asia and China's friendly cooperative relations has opened a new chapter.Under such a background,the enthusiasm of Southeast Asian people for learning Chinese continues to rise,Confucius institute has naturally become a good platform to meet the learning needs.As one of the earliest areas to establish Confucius institute,there are 31 Confucius institutes in Southeast Asia now,many of them have gone through more than 10 years of operation and development.During this period,how the work goes on of Confucius institutes in various countries,what are the similarities and characteristics,is worthy of study.This paper bases on the basic functions of Confucius institute and the self-built database of Confucius institutes in Southeast Asia,makes a comparative study on four main aspects,the cultivation of students,the training of local Chinese teachers,the selection of textbooks and the development of cultural activities.Due to the incomplete information of Confucius institute of Hanoi university,Vietnam,and,Myanmar,Brunei,Timor-Leste three countries have not yet established Confucius institute,so it mainly focuses on the Confucius institutes in Thailand,Indonesia,Philippines,Malaysia,Cambodia,Laos and Singapore.In terms of the cultivation of students and the training of local Chinese teachers,the concept of "standard academic year person" is used to transform the different training workload of Confucius institutes from 2007 to 2016 into units that can be measured and compared in a unified way.The Confucius institutes in Thailand have good performance,both of the results are far ahead of Confucius institutes in other countries.The Confucius institutes in Philippines,both of the results rank secondly in the region.The results of the cultivation of students of Confucius institutes in Cambodia,Laos and Indonesia are close to each other,which reflects that Indonesia,which has more Confucius institutes,has not reached its full potential.The result of the training of local Chinese teachers of Confucius institute in Singapore is relatively good,but the result of the cultivation of students has not reached the expectations.Confucius institutes in Malaysia are both in a weak position.At the same time,the overall situation of the region shows,the cultivation of students is much better than the training of local Chinese teachers,the number of students in Confucius institutes of various countries is basically in a rising trend,but the training of local Chinese teachers is urgent to strengthen.Based on the comparative analysis,this paper puts forward nine suggestions on how to improve the cultivation of students in Confucius institutes in Southeast Asia,such as,should attach importance to both educational education and non diploma education,should strengthen cooperation with private schools and Chinese schools.Similarly,puts forward five suggestions to the training of local Chinese teachers,such as,should establish long-term training mechanisms,should strengthen classification training.In terms of the selection of textbooks,the paper lists the ranking table of textbooks selected by Confucius institutes in Southeast Asia in the past ten years.Then analyzes the object,content and function of those textbooks,and summarizes the characteristics of different selection.The coincidence degree of the selected textbooks of Confucius institutes in various countries is not high,which reflects that in the normal Chinese teaching process,more attention has been paid to the actual situation.At the same time,the top 15 selected textbooks in Southeast Asia were listed,and the six characteristics of them were summarized as comprehensive,systematic,functional,flexible,diverse and different.It is worth mentioning that the phenomenon of self-compiled teaching materials is very common in Southeast Asia,which shows that Confucius institutes in various countries are eager for more suitable localized textbooks.This paper puts forward six suggestions for the compilation of local Chinese textbooks,such as,keeping pace with the times and conforming to the learning rules of students.In terms of cultural activities,according to the number of various cultural activities carried out by Confucius institutes in various countries in the past decade,the Confucius institutes in Thailand still have a large proportion of leading,Confucius instConfucius itutes in Philippines and Indonesia rank two and three respectively,institutes in Cambodia and Singapore are later,Confucius institutes in Malaysia and Laos are relatively backward.Although Confucius institutes in various countries have done a lot of work in cultural activities,the whole shows a rising trend,but there are still shortcomings,this paper puts forward six suggestions to help to improve,such as,should highlight the characteristics and keep pace with the times,should make innovation and expand deeply.In the past ten years,Confucius institutes in Southeast Asia have made a lot of achievements,there are also many problems,in order to present the development of Confucius institutes better,find problems and solve timely,Confucius institutes should be regularly evaluated.This paper selects eleven Confucius institutes from six countries in Southeast Asia,and makes an empirical evaluation based on the evaluation index system of Confucius institutes proposed by Wu Yinghui.According to the evaluation results,it summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of each Confucius institute,compares the performance of each Confucius institute in the work represented by each index,and summarizes the common problems of Confucius institutes in various countries,such as,lacking of high-quality management personnel,should raise funds for running schools in many ways.In the process of evaluation,it is found that the existing evaluation index system has many advantages,but also shortcomings,the available information of Confucius institutes is not equal to the evaluation index,and the evaluation results may only depend on individual index.This paper proposes using AHP to optimize the existing evaluation index system,through the questionnaire survey to some people related to Confucius institute,scientifically determine the weight of each index,and standardize the single index score,reduce the subjectivity of the evaluation,so that the evaluation results will be more objective and accurate.At the same time,the paper puts forward to set up the evaluation network information platform of Confucius institute and computer automatic scoring program by using "Internet + Evaluation" mode and computer technology,aiming to achieve normalization of information collection and semi-automatic scoring.In addition,this paper puts forward the four-dimensional evaluation strategy of Confucius institute,which is formed by Confucius institute self-evaluation,student evaluation,Hanban evaluation and third-party evaluation.Every dimension has its own characteristics,and the results are complementary.It can make the evaluation work of Confucius institute more comprehensive,effective and authoritative,and become a solid foundation and a powerful force for the sustainable development of Confucius institute.I hope that the relevant departments and more experts and scholars can pay more attention to the development of Confucius institute in Southeast Asia,do more research and spare no efforts to promote the deepening reform and innovation of Confucius institute,improve the system and mechanism,optimize the distribution structure,strengthen construction power,improve the quality of running a institute,and make the Confucius institute become an important force of cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries.