The Development Of Confucius Institute And Its Effect On Chinese Cultural Soft Power Construction

More than30years of reform and opening up, China has become an influential country in theworld through the rapid development, and its strength on politics, economy, and scientifictechnology has enhanced significantly."The rise of China" is considered to be one of thegreat historical events that change the world pattern. However, in the process of the rise, it isnot enough to have the only hard power. History of the rise of the major contemporarycountries indicates that one has to synchronously develop the national soft power, expand itscultural influence. Only a country which is strong in culture can be a worldwide powerful one.In recent years, enhancing China’s cultural soft power has become consensus among thewhole nation, and a national strategy.Founded in2004, through the promoting of Chinese language and culture, Confucius Institutehas become one of the most important brands of Chinese cultural soft power. Its rapiddevelopment of the momentum in recent years, has made it a sample of studying Chinese softpower contribution and development. This article overviews the development of ConfuciusInstitute, analyses problems based on its exist development status, and discuss some views onhow it plays more important roles on developing Chinese cultural soft power with the softpower theory through the introduction of what other major powerful countries do to expandtheir cultural influence. Besides, the author has proposed some suggestions to improve andperfect the Confucius institute, hoping to provide some helpful reference for its value.