Directors of foreign universities expressed their welcome to the Confucius Institute, China's program to promote its culture and mutual understanding around the world.
The second Confucius Institute Conference opened here Tuesday gathering delegates from Institutes around the world.
"My experience at the conference shows that you can make friends worldwide if you speak Chinese," said Gary Sigley, director of the Confucius Institute of the University of Western Australia, here Tuesday.
To promote Chinese language and culture, China started to host the Confucius Institutes in 2004. So far, there have been 210 Confucius Institutes in 64 countries and regions. In addition, more than 20 organizations from 61 countries have applied to open Confucius Institutes.
Sigley's 45 students are studying in China under an exchange program with the institute. Most of them are younger than 25.
"They come from different cultural and social backgrounds from their Chinese counterparts but share the same dream of a peaceful and harmonious world," he said. "Confucius Institutes offer a platform of cross-culture communication and friendship."
"Courses on Chinese tea culture and Tai Ji Quan, offered at the institute, are always over-subscribed," said Kawaguchi Kiyofumi, president of Ritsumeikan University.
Agreeing with Kiyofumi, William M. Tsutsui, executive director of the Confucius Institute of the University of Kansas in the United States, said that local residents are expecting more practical and interesting Chinese courses.
China's Peking University is cooperating with nine Confucius Institutes at colleges abroad. Xu Zhihong, its president, said that the program also helps the university to improve all-round cooperation with foreign counterparts.
Timothy O'Shea, Principal of the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, said that the Confucius Institute helped strengthen China-Britain friendly cooperation and deepened British people's understanding of Chinese culture.
The university's Confucius Institute has offered Chinese language courses at different levels and special programs, for example for company employees, government officials. It has also organized a touring Chinese film festival, he said.
Jean Tabi Manga, president of University of Yaounde II of Cameroon, is on his first trip to China.
Cameroon people held China in special affection, he said, adding that the Confucius Institute has received a warm welcome from both the government and ordinary people.
"The Confucius Institute in our university is young but energetic. We have many plans and are confident we can promote Chinese language and culture among Cameroonians and in Africa at large, so as to expand cooperation between the two sides," he said.
Almost all the delegates at the conference recite, "It is such a delight to have friends coming from afar," the famous saying of Kongzi, the ancient Chinese philosopher whom the Confucius Institute was named after.
The Confucius Institute has helped promote the concept of a harmonious world proposed by the Chinese people, said Chinese Education Minister Zhou Ji.
Statistics showed that more than 30 million people overseas are learning the Chinese language.
"The Confucius Institute has become a window to display Chinese culture to the outside world, and a bridge to strengthen mutual understanding between peoples," Zhou said.
Source: Xinhua
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