Study On The Temporal And Spatial Evolution Of Confucius Institutes In South Asia And Southeast Asia

Confucius Institutes are non-profit educational institutions jointly established by China and foreign countries,major institutions teaching Chinese for the promotion of Chinese language and culture overseas,and an important medium with which Chinese education is delivered worldwide.South Asian and Southeast Asian countries have profound historical and cultural origins,close cultural ties,frequent trade and investment,and a cooperation mechanism for joint construction and win-win development with China,so these regions are important for the transmission of Chinese language and culture and promotion of cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and foreign countries.Since the first Confucius Institute settled down in Thailand in 2005,50 Confucius Institutes have been established in South Asia and Southeast Asia,making great contributions to cultural exchanges and the promotion of mutual understanding and trust between people in these areas and in China.Against the historical background of building a community of shared future for mankind and facilitating common prosperity and development of all countries,the development of Confucius Institutes is not simply an issue in the field of education,and how to promote the coordinated development of Confucius Institutes and regions where they are located has become an important research topic of practical significance.In this study,the development of Confucius Institutes was considered as an educational complex from the perspective of human-environment interaction.The research in this paper is based on the theory of the regional system of human-land relations,the comprehensive paradigm theory of geography research,and the laws of internal and external relations in education as well as the investigation of the Confucius Institute in South and Southeast Asia.In addition,this paper comprehensively uses qualitative to quantitative meta-synthesis methods,geographical space-time analysis,and other methods to build an evaluation index system for the comprehensive development of the Confucius Institute based on research.Based on the measurement and analysis of the development level and development potential of the 50 Confucius Institutes in South and Southeast Asian countries and the status and characteristics of each element,this article divides the types of development levels and development potentials of Confucius Institutes,and explores South Asia and Southeast Asia based on development potential.The level of adaptability and type of development of Confucius Institutes in various countries is summarized as a whole and the competitive relationship between the development level and development potential of Confucius Institutes in South and Southeast Asian countries.In addition,this article analyzes the constraints and promotion conditions for the development of the Confucius Institute in South Asia and Southeast Asia,and proposes the layout ideas and development paths of the Confucius Institute in South Asia and Southeast Asia.The study suggests that(1)basic elements of the comprehensive development of Confucius schools include their development level and potential.Their development potential is composed of an affinity between countries promoting such education,national support for carrying out such education,and personal demand for accepting such education.(2)From 2014 to 2018,the overall development level of Confucius Institutes in South Asia and Southeast Asia showed a rising trend,but differed obviously from country to country;among the 16 regional types of development levels of Confucius Institutes,those in these regions can be classified into 6 major types,namely those developing at a high level,those with weakened cultural exchanges,those emphasizing institutes and culture,those dominated by the number of institutes,those dominated by cultural exchanges,and those developing at a low level.(3)From 2008 to 2018,the development potential of Confucius Institutes in South Asia and Southeast Asia was generally on the rise,but showed clear differences among countries;among the 8 types of development potential of Confucius Institutes,those in these regions can be categorized into 5 types,namely those with high development potential,those with weakened personal demand,those with weakened affinity between countries,those dominated by affinity between countries,and those with low development potential.(4)From 2014 to 2018,the adaptation level of Confucius Institutes in South Asia and Southeast Asia developing based on development potential showed an overall growing trend,but obvious differences from country to country;the regional types of adaptation of Confucius Institutes developing based on development potential are: high adaptation,those dominated by the development level of institutes,those dominated by the development potential of institutes,and low adaptation.(5)The overall competitive relations of Confucius Institutes in terms of development levels include 5 types,namely strong competitive relations,stronger competitive relations,weaker competitive relations,weak competitive relations,and non-competitive relations;the overall competitive relations of Confucius Institutes in terms of development potential include 4 types,namely strong competitive relations,stronger competitive relations,weak competitive relations,and non-competitive relatio.This study argues that,first of all,the development of Confucius Institutes in South Asia and Southeast Asia follows the general laws of educational development,to achieve the coordination and unity of the scale,structure,quality and benefit of education in the interaction between educational demand and supply.Second,following the basic law of cultural diffusion,multiple models of cultural diffusion coexist in the layout and development of these institutes,including relocation,hierarchical,contagious and stimulus diffusion.Last,Confucius Institutes are characterized by twoway interaction,the development of which needs to not only serve the national development strategy of China,but also meet the diversified educational needs of society and population in South Asia and Southeast Asia and serve regional multilateral cooperation and development.Ideas on the overall layout were presented for the development of Confucius Institutes in South Asia and Southeast Asia in terms of educational space,scale and structure,and several development paths were recommended from the perspectives of their adaptation to laws of self-development,educational demand of population in these regions,regional economic and social development,and relations among countries in the new era,so as to further optimize the layout and facilitate the sustainable development of Confucius Institutes in South Asia and Southeast Asia.