Tweet
MOBILIZING CONFUCIUS
By Nancy Chen And Ethan Yi
US-China Today
10/06/2009
Confucius Classroom, a program from the Chinese government aimed
at teaching high school students Chinese culture and language, is
expanding rapidly around the world.
At first glance, St. Mary's School in Medford, a southern Oregon
city with a population that's only about one percent Asian, seems
an unlikely hotspot for Chinese cultural and language education. And
that's exactly what the Chinese government is counting on.
China's efforts to expand economically and politically and to better
its image have been closely scrutinized over the past few years;
the Olympics last August, the growing Chinese movie industry and
endless newspaper headlines worldwide documenting China's growth have
helped usher in what many have called a new era in international
relations. Economic success is often closely followed by cultural
expansion, and China is no exception.
Beijing is also turning its attention to the next generation of
American businessmen, politicians and other leaders, starting early--in
high school and college, to be exact. The aim is to provide Chinese
language and culture instruction worldwide, with a special effort to
reach rural areas where such instruction is less common.
St. Mary's, a private Catholic school with 400 junior high and high
school students, was the first recipient in the Americas to receive a
$50,000 grant from the Chinese Ministry of Education last August. They
have since received $250,000 to cover, among other expenses, the
stipends of both of their Chinese language instructors as well as
community outreach programs. In addition to language and cultural
education at St. Mary's, the five-year old program also offers adult
language classes open to the community, weekly Chinese instruction in
elementary schools, and subsidized travel opportunities for students.
More than 350 Confucius Classrooms and Institutes have been established
worldwide since 20 nguage instruction available to high school and
university students worldwide. Confucius Classrooms have opened in
Scotland and Australia, and Central Carolina Community College in
North Carolina will be the first community college in the United
States to establish one later this year, aimed at high school and
college students, businesspeople and the general public.
If you are having problems viewing the slideshow, please download
the latest version of Adobe Flash Player.
There are only a handful of Chinese Classrooms established in the
United States so far, but so far about 60 schools have applied for
support. Prestigious private schools such as the Hotchkiss School
in Connecticut, Boston College High School and the Dalton School
in Manhattan are among those which have applied for the program,
according to Frank Phillips, the St. Mary's headmaster.
The program's administrators at Hanban, the Chinese government
office with the mission of promoting the study of Chinese language
and culture, say they try to make each Confucius Classroom is just
as different from the next.
Zhao Guocheng, the deputy director of the Hanban program, said
in Chinese in a phone interview that the program usually does
not intervene in the curriculum development of local Confucius
Classrooms. The local Confucius Classrooms are pretty independent
and adapt their teaching style to the local conditions, he said.
Eighty students are enrolled in St. Mary's school Confucius Classroom
program, but the curriculum doesn't just stay inside the school's
classrooms. For example, it includes providing medical specialists from
Henan University for an upcoming local medical conference The Chinese
specialists, whose expenses will be split by Hanban and St. Mary's,
will educate physicians on the use of traditional Chinese medicine,
including how it can be applied to the treatment of AIDS.
Phillips said the overall costs for the Confucius Classroom program
itself are evenly divided between Hanban and St. Mary's, a typical
arrangement for posal including a list of ideas of how they can
expand in the community and Hanban has yet to reject any of their
applications.
Philips said he has not run into any conflicts over the curriculum
with Hanban. "Hanban has a very light hand," he said.
Professional ambitions as well as personal curiosity have contributed
to the popularity of the program at St. Mary's.
"Regardless of any profession, [Mandarin] is going to be a very
important language to learn," said Franny Aliattraih, a student at
St. Mary's enrolled in the program.
Phillips says his school's program isn't meant for just business.
"We're not pursuing Chinese as a market language for the kids," he
said. "We're also projecting Chinese culture and history into our
social studies curriculum."
The program, in fact, has proven to be so popular Phillips says the
school's other language courses have felt an adverse effect.
"The big problem is what does it do to the other languages," he
said. "Chinese is a hot language now...Our Latin class is losing
enrollment, and Chinese is giving Spanish a run for its money right
now."
Some students say they are eager to learn about a different culture
and language, but for at least one student, the program affords her
a chance to learn about her own heritage.
"I never really understood a whole great deal before taking a class
in Confucius Classroom," said Dana Feng, a senior enrolled in the
program. Feng, a Chinese American born in the U.S., recalled being
unprepared during a trip to Hong Kong but says she is looking forward
to her next trip.
"After studying [in Confucius Classroom], I really hope I could go
back again," she said. "Learning the language has really inspired me
to want to go back and pursue the language more."
And that sentiment is what Confucius Classrooms and its more
established predecessor, Confucius Institutes, are hoping for in
their students. Confucius Institutes, which share the same mission
as Confucius Classrooms of supporting local Ch the opening of the
first Institute in Seoul, South Korea.
Since then, 328 Confucius Institutes have opened in 82 countries,
including Armenia, Cuba, Iran, Poland, Kenya and the United
States. Hanban's initial public plans called for 100 Institutes, but
with the success of the program, the Hanban now hopes to set up 500
Institutes worldwide by 2010 and estimates there will be approximately
100 million non-Chinese worldwide learning the language. With an aim
to set up a thousand Institutes by 2020, Beijing is also hoping to
combat stereotypes with its cultural education.
The Classroom program was established partly in response to the
Institutes' popularity; the first one opened in February 2008 in
Vienna, Austria. Confucius Classrooms are founded in areas that
typically do not have much exposure to Chinese culture, unlike
Confucius Institutes, which are usually set up in universities with
already well-established Chinese language programs.
"Learning the language of a country is very important to forming
friendship," Xia Yun, St. Mary's Chinese-language instructor,
said. "I came to the U.S. in 2004 and was surprised at how little
common Americans knew about China."
"Their image of China was from movies and how American movies portrayed
China, which was not truly objective. I think in order to eliminate
such misunderstanding, the most useful way is to learn the Chinese
language. If they know the Chinese language, they would want to go
to China on their own and find out what China is really like."
According to Zhao of the Hanban, schools usually make the first
approach. St. Mary's, for example, contacted Hanban in 2007 and
received a grant because of their then-two-year-old Chinese language
program for grades six through 12.
Challenges have risen as a result of the programs as well; the
establishment of a Confucius Classroom at St. Mary's, an independent
Roman Catholic school, initially drew controversy in the community.
Zhao said that a few people initially thought of Confucius as
a re sroom as a center to preach a Chinese religion, not as an
educational institute to introduce Chinese language and cultures. The
responsibility lies with local staffs, he said, which must clarify
the mission of our institute to the local community.
Philips said he hasn't received any complaints about the program
since last year.
"I had a few dubious parents who were stuck in the Cold War who
questioned whether it was a propaganda initiative," he said.
Since then, however, both Phillips and Xia say the situation has
been resolved.
He said he hasn't heard much criticism since starting a public-outreach
initiative to educated the community as well as parents about the
program.
"I've been doing some public speaking and we've hosted an evening
to explain the program's purpose," Phillips said. "The overwhelming
response was, 'How do I sign up for Chinese?'"
The program has even created advocates in the community, Xia said.
"The misunderstanding soon disappeared and the influential persons in
the local communities are very supportive by donating money, telling
their friends and partners about it," Xia said. "They will be willing
to start more programs, projects related to the Confucius Classroom
in the future."
The Confucius Classroom and Institute programs have also created
debates over the program's true purpose. The Canadian Security
Intelligence Service said in a brief obtained by The Canadian Press
that Beijing is using the Institute program to further establish
itself as a global power.
"In other words, China wants the world to have positive feelings
toward China and things Chinese," the report said. "For China to
achieve its goals, people must admire China to some degree."
China is not the only country aiming to promoting this; the United
States also has its own programs dedicated to teaching Chinese
language and culture, viewing it as a national security priority. The
U.S. Department of State, for example, provides scholarships for
students to learn "less uages"--including Chinese--through its National
Security Language Initiative for Youth.
The lesson plans of Confucius Classrooms, however, largely remain
independent of Beijing's intervention, the Hanban director Zhao
said. He, however, also ties the mission of the programs to Confucius
himself.
"Confucius is regarded as a prominent pedagogue in human history
and he spent decades travelling around the country to propagate
his philosophy and enlighten more people," Zhao said. "This, in our
opinion, perfectly fits the mission of Confucius Classroom--to teach
the Chinese language and promote its cultures outside China."
The effects of teaching a language and culture to students don't just
stay in the classroom, one expert said.
"Like what the Olympics have done...it helps to broaden the
conversation, the discourse about China in the U.S.," Jian Wang, a
professor of public relations at the University of Southern California,
said. "All those things are much broader than just offering classes
to young people."
Nancy Chen is the co-managing editor of US-China Today and a rising
senior studying international relations at the University of Southern
California.
Ethan Yi is studying for his Master's degree in East Asian Languages
and Culture at the University of Southern California.
By Nancy Chen And Ethan Yi
US-China Today
10/06/2009
Confucius Classroom, a program from the Chinese government aimed
at teaching high school students Chinese culture and language, is
expanding rapidly around the world.
At first glance, St. Mary's School in Medford, a southern Oregon
city with a population that's only about one percent Asian, seems
an unlikely hotspot for Chinese cultural and language education. And
that's exactly what the Chinese government is counting on.
China's efforts to expand economically and politically and to better
its image have been closely scrutinized over the past few years;
the Olympics last August, the growing Chinese movie industry and
endless newspaper headlines worldwide documenting China's growth have
helped usher in what many have called a new era in international
relations. Economic success is often closely followed by cultural
expansion, and China is no exception.
Beijing is also turning its attention to the next generation of
American businessmen, politicians and other leaders, starting early--in
high school and college, to be exact. The aim is to provide Chinese
language and culture instruction worldwide, with a special effort to
reach rural areas where such instruction is less common.
St. Mary's, a private Catholic school with 400 junior high and high
school students, was the first recipient in the Americas to receive a
$50,000 grant from the Chinese Ministry of Education last August. They
have since received $250,000 to cover, among other expenses, the
stipends of both of their Chinese language instructors as well as
community outreach programs. In addition to language and cultural
education at St. Mary's, the five-year old program also offers adult
language classes open to the community, weekly Chinese instruction in
elementary schools, and subsidized travel opportunities for students.
More than 350 Confucius Classrooms and Institutes have been established
worldwide since 20 nguage instruction available to high school and
university students worldwide. Confucius Classrooms have opened in
Scotland and Australia, and Central Carolina Community College in
North Carolina will be the first community college in the United
States to establish one later this year, aimed at high school and
college students, businesspeople and the general public.
If you are having problems viewing the slideshow, please download
the latest version of Adobe Flash Player.
There are only a handful of Chinese Classrooms established in the
United States so far, but so far about 60 schools have applied for
support. Prestigious private schools such as the Hotchkiss School
in Connecticut, Boston College High School and the Dalton School
in Manhattan are among those which have applied for the program,
according to Frank Phillips, the St. Mary's headmaster.
The program's administrators at Hanban, the Chinese government
office with the mission of promoting the study of Chinese language
and culture, say they try to make each Confucius Classroom is just
as different from the next.
Zhao Guocheng, the deputy director of the Hanban program, said
in Chinese in a phone interview that the program usually does
not intervene in the curriculum development of local Confucius
Classrooms. The local Confucius Classrooms are pretty independent
and adapt their teaching style to the local conditions, he said.
Eighty students are enrolled in St. Mary's school Confucius Classroom
program, but the curriculum doesn't just stay inside the school's
classrooms. For example, it includes providing medical specialists from
Henan University for an upcoming local medical conference The Chinese
specialists, whose expenses will be split by Hanban and St. Mary's,
will educate physicians on the use of traditional Chinese medicine,
including how it can be applied to the treatment of AIDS.
Phillips said the overall costs for the Confucius Classroom program
itself are evenly divided between Hanban and St. Mary's, a typical
arrangement for posal including a list of ideas of how they can
expand in the community and Hanban has yet to reject any of their
applications.
Philips said he has not run into any conflicts over the curriculum
with Hanban. "Hanban has a very light hand," he said.
Professional ambitions as well as personal curiosity have contributed
to the popularity of the program at St. Mary's.
"Regardless of any profession, [Mandarin] is going to be a very
important language to learn," said Franny Aliattraih, a student at
St. Mary's enrolled in the program.
Phillips says his school's program isn't meant for just business.
"We're not pursuing Chinese as a market language for the kids," he
said. "We're also projecting Chinese culture and history into our
social studies curriculum."
The program, in fact, has proven to be so popular Phillips says the
school's other language courses have felt an adverse effect.
"The big problem is what does it do to the other languages," he
said. "Chinese is a hot language now...Our Latin class is losing
enrollment, and Chinese is giving Spanish a run for its money right
now."
Some students say they are eager to learn about a different culture
and language, but for at least one student, the program affords her
a chance to learn about her own heritage.
"I never really understood a whole great deal before taking a class
in Confucius Classroom," said Dana Feng, a senior enrolled in the
program. Feng, a Chinese American born in the U.S., recalled being
unprepared during a trip to Hong Kong but says she is looking forward
to her next trip.
"After studying [in Confucius Classroom], I really hope I could go
back again," she said. "Learning the language has really inspired me
to want to go back and pursue the language more."
And that sentiment is what Confucius Classrooms and its more
established predecessor, Confucius Institutes, are hoping for in
their students. Confucius Institutes, which share the same mission
as Confucius Classrooms of supporting local Ch the opening of the
first Institute in Seoul, South Korea.
Since then, 328 Confucius Institutes have opened in 82 countries,
including Armenia, Cuba, Iran, Poland, Kenya and the United
States. Hanban's initial public plans called for 100 Institutes, but
with the success of the program, the Hanban now hopes to set up 500
Institutes worldwide by 2010 and estimates there will be approximately
100 million non-Chinese worldwide learning the language. With an aim
to set up a thousand Institutes by 2020, Beijing is also hoping to
combat stereotypes with its cultural education.
The Classroom program was established partly in response to the
Institutes' popularity; the first one opened in February 2008 in
Vienna, Austria. Confucius Classrooms are founded in areas that
typically do not have much exposure to Chinese culture, unlike
Confucius Institutes, which are usually set up in universities with
already well-established Chinese language programs.
"Learning the language of a country is very important to forming
friendship," Xia Yun, St. Mary's Chinese-language instructor,
said. "I came to the U.S. in 2004 and was surprised at how little
common Americans knew about China."
"Their image of China was from movies and how American movies portrayed
China, which was not truly objective. I think in order to eliminate
such misunderstanding, the most useful way is to learn the Chinese
language. If they know the Chinese language, they would want to go
to China on their own and find out what China is really like."
According to Zhao of the Hanban, schools usually make the first
approach. St. Mary's, for example, contacted Hanban in 2007 and
received a grant because of their then-two-year-old Chinese language
program for grades six through 12.
Challenges have risen as a result of the programs as well; the
establishment of a Confucius Classroom at St. Mary's, an independent
Roman Catholic school, initially drew controversy in the community.
Zhao said that a few people initially thought of Confucius as
a re sroom as a center to preach a Chinese religion, not as an
educational institute to introduce Chinese language and cultures. The
responsibility lies with local staffs, he said, which must clarify
the mission of our institute to the local community.
Philips said he hasn't received any complaints about the program
since last year.
"I had a few dubious parents who were stuck in the Cold War who
questioned whether it was a propaganda initiative," he said.
Since then, however, both Phillips and Xia say the situation has
been resolved.
He said he hasn't heard much criticism since starting a public-outreach
initiative to educated the community as well as parents about the
program.
"I've been doing some public speaking and we've hosted an evening
to explain the program's purpose," Phillips said. "The overwhelming
response was, 'How do I sign up for Chinese?'"
The program has even created advocates in the community, Xia said.
"The misunderstanding soon disappeared and the influential persons in
the local communities are very supportive by donating money, telling
their friends and partners about it," Xia said. "They will be willing
to start more programs, projects related to the Confucius Classroom
in the future."
The Confucius Classroom and Institute programs have also created
debates over the program's true purpose. The Canadian Security
Intelligence Service said in a brief obtained by The Canadian Press
that Beijing is using the Institute program to further establish
itself as a global power.
"In other words, China wants the world to have positive feelings
toward China and things Chinese," the report said. "For China to
achieve its goals, people must admire China to some degree."
China is not the only country aiming to promoting this; the United
States also has its own programs dedicated to teaching Chinese
language and culture, viewing it as a national security priority. The
U.S. Department of State, for example, provides scholarships for
students to learn "less uages"--including Chinese--through its National
Security Language Initiative for Youth.
The lesson plans of Confucius Classrooms, however, largely remain
independent of Beijing's intervention, the Hanban director Zhao
said. He, however, also ties the mission of the programs to Confucius
himself.
"Confucius is regarded as a prominent pedagogue in human history
and he spent decades travelling around the country to propagate
his philosophy and enlighten more people," Zhao said. "This, in our
opinion, perfectly fits the mission of Confucius Classroom--to teach
the Chinese language and promote its cultures outside China."
The effects of teaching a language and culture to students don't just
stay in the classroom, one expert said.
"Like what the Olympics have done...it helps to broaden the
conversation, the discourse about China in the U.S.," Jian Wang, a
professor of public relations at the University of Southern California,
said. "All those things are much broader than just offering classes
to young people."
Nancy Chen is the co-managing editor of US-China Today and a rising
senior studying international relations at the University of Southern
California.
Ethan Yi is studying for his Master's degree in East Asian Languages
and Culture at the University of Southern California.