On The History Of The Development Of The Confucius Institute

The establishment of the Confucius Institute is a major language communication measure of strategic significance implemented by our country in response to the needs of the world’s Chinese language learning and the needs of our country’s international development.Since the establishment of the first Confucius Institute in 2004,after nearly 20 years of development,the Confucius Institute has become the world’s largest and most influential language teaching institution established by an emerging economy,with cultural,economic,political and social influence at home and abroad.It has had a wide-ranging impact on life and other aspects.However,due to complex factors,criticism and opposition have always accompanied the development of Confucius Institutes,especially in Western countries in recent years,and some countries even stigmatized and suppressed them and closed them down.This is not only detrimental to the development of the Confucius Institute,but also has a negative impact on the image of our country.Due to their short history and rapid development,neither the industry nor the academic circles have been able to comprehensively collect and sort out the situation of Confucius Institutes around the world,and few people have conducted systematic and in-depth research on their important aspects.Existing relevant studies are mostly partial or of a certain dimension,or even case-by-case.Therefore,the society at home and abroad generally lacks a comprehensive understanding of the Confucius Institute.This is one of the reasons that lead to different opinions on the Confucius Institute at home and abroad.In addition,some people and countries deliberately misinterpret and discredit the Confucius Institute,making it difficult to distinguish the true from the false.Therefore,under the current situation of major changes unseen in a century,it is very important to comprehensively sort out and study the development process of the Confucius Institute and restore the real Confucius Institute.It not only has important practical value,but also has theoretical significance in many fields,also has the value of the times and the significance of the world in different dimensions.In order to ensure the objectivity,reliability and scientificity of the research,this research persists in starting from the facts and speaking with the facts.In addition to comprehensively collecting general literature,more than 100 representative front-line witnesses,researchers and key figuresat home and abroad were interviewed;Around100,000 words of interview texts were sorted out,and a large number of original archives from the Confucius Institute Headquarters/Hanban,Chinese-foreign cooperative institutions,and important parties at home and abroad were also collected through various methods,including agreement texts,work emails,financial records,etc.It also built a database of 555 Confucius Institutes/Classrooms around the world.This study is based on facts and pays attention to the combination of history and theory.Starting from the investigation of the establishment background and motivation of the Confucius Institute,it comprehensively explores the development context and evolution mechanism of the Confucius Institute,and thoroughly sorts out and studies its development environment,development planning,operation status,main characteristics and existing problems,and focus on the analysis of the several major controversies about the Confucius Institute.On this basis,it discusses the experience and lessons of the development of the Confucius Institute and its enlightenment,and look forward to the development prospects of the Confucius Institute.The Confucius Institute was established and developed under the background of the rapid development of globalization and informationization,driven by the needs of the world for China and the needs of China’s international development,and based on the experience of major Western countries’ language and culture communication institutions.The development process of the Confucius Institute can be divided into four stages,namely: the brewing and start-up stage(1999-2005),the leaping stage(2006-2010),and the transformation and upgrading stage(2011-2017)and the adjustment stage of the development pattern(2018-present).In the brewing and start-up stage,the Confucius Institute was fully prepared and got off to a relatively smooth start.In the stage of leapfrog development,the Confucius Institute coincides with great opportunities such as the continuous improvement of China’s influence and the gradual easing of the international environment,and applications from various countries have poured in.In order to adapt to the new development,under the impetus of the “ six major transformations ” of the international promotion of Chinese proposed by relevant parties,the Confucius Institute has determined the development concept of comprehensive development and accelerated development in response to new needs.As a result,the management and operation of the Confucius Institute has been gradually standardized,the school-running model has gradually become more diversified,the conditions for running the school have been significantly improved,the global distribution has initially taken shape,the scale of running the school has expanded rapidly,and the results of running the school have been impressive..In the stage of transformation and upgrading,under the new situation of great changes in the world and the deepening of Sino-foreign cooperation,the development concept of the Confucius Institute has shifted from focusing on scale and single function to connotative development,diversified development,integrated development and characteristic development.In terms of development priorities,it focuses on quality improvement.At this stage,the guarantee conditions continued to improve,the global distribution continued to be optimized,the growth rate of scale slowed down,and the results of running schools exceeded expectations.At the same time,the bottleneck of development became prominent,and the development environment changed suddenly.In the adjustment stage of the development pattern,the Confucius Institute is facing new challenges and opportunities,and has embarked on the road of high-quality development.The management system has undergone major changes,the operating mechanism has been adjusted according to the situation,and more attention has been paid to relying on the power of the people and the market.Influenced by the development of new online teaching methods,the development of Confucius Institutes has been severely disturbed and impacted by the fierce attacks and suppression of Western countries,and the number of institutions has decreased.Due to information asymmetry,certain suspicions and deliberate slander attacks,the Confucius Institute has always been accompanied by controversy.The focus of the debate mainly focuses on the following aspects:First,is the purpose and mission of the Confucius Institute“cultural infiltration”or Chinese teaching that responds to the needs? Facts have shown that the Confucius Institute is a Chinese teaching institution established in response to the world’s Chinese learning needs and on the premise of the willingness of its partners,rather than a “ Trojan horse ” that undertakes the political mission of the Chinese government.Second,is it a deliberate expansion on the function,or spillover? The survey shows that the Confucius Instituteis not deliberately expanding its capacity,but follows a natural evolutionary law,formed naturally through social practice and interaction between China and foreign countries.It is the result of the joint action of the objective needs of society and the expectations of multiple stakeholders.Third,is the restructuring of the Confucius Institute a forced change,or an innovation due to the situation? The research shows that the restructuring is based on the needs of the Confucius Institute’s own development and the new changes in Chinese learning,and at the same time it is an active innovation in response to changes in the international situation,rather than the so-called “makeover”.Its purpose is to develop the Confucius Institute better and to keep pace with the times.Fourth,how does one view the role and function of the government? According to the actual situation of the Confucius Institute and the practice of other countries,it can be seen that government participation is a common practice of the world’s major language and cultural communication organizations.The Chinese government has played an active role in the development of the Confucius Institute without any bad intentions or actions.Fifth,how to evaluate the merits and demerits of the Confucius Institute? A calm and comprehensive review of the development process and objective reality of the Confucius Institutes clearly shows that the Confucius Institutes have achieved remarkable results in running schools,but there are also some shortcomings such as the lack of integration into the local area,some Confucius Institutes need to be upgraded.On the whole,the effectiveness and positive role of the Confucius Institute is an objective fact.It has made unremitting efforts for world language and cultural exchanges and cooperation and world harmony.The Confucius Institute is China’s contribution to the world.The suspicion,slander and suppression of Confucius Institutes in some western countries are mainly due to resistance from western historical inertia,arrogance and prejudice,cultural anxiety and even hegemony anxiety and Mc Carthyism.At the same time,it reflects the passivity and weakness of our country’s language and culture communication power and international discourse power.The Confucius Institute has not been developed for a long time but its experience is full of twists and turns,bringing many new theoretical thinking and practical enlightenment to the world.The practice of the Confucius Institute has deepened our understanding of the dynamics of language communication: demand is the fundamental driving force of language communication,and the government is a force that cannot be ignored in language communication,breaking the myth of "language communication purism" : language communication and culture have an indissoluble bond,there is no vacuum in language communication;it enriches the theory and practice of language and cultural diversity: maintaining language and cultural diversity must oppose language and cultural hegemony,and maintaining language and cultural diversity helps to promote human survival and development;It shows the successful way of language communication practice: Leverage is the basic strategy of language communication,and integration is the secret of success in language and culture communication.Looking forward to the future,the consensus that the destiny of mankind is closely linked has endowed the Confucius Institute with a new mission,and the Chinese-style modernization drive has provided the Confucius Institute with new momentum.The Confucius Institute still has great potential under the new situation.The society and the industry should raise consensus and stick to the original intention of the cause,commission to optimize the business pattern,open up channels and reconstruct the school-running system,make good use of differences to highlight the characteristics of school-running,and to build a community of language and culture communication together with other language and culture communication organizations in the world,and hold high the banner of “dialogue”,and jointly promote international language and culture exchanges,mutual learning of civilizations,and the development of human civilization.