Peking University, Dec. 23, 2017: From December 11th to 13th, the 12th Confucius Institute Conference was held in Xi’an, with the theme of “Deepen Cooperation, Developing through Innovation, Working Together to Build a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind”. Professor Hao Ping, chairman of the PKU council, as well as Wang Bo, vice president of PKU, Xia Hongwei, director of the Office of International Relations, and Zhao Yang, dean of the School of Chinese as a Second Language, attended the conference.
On the afternoon of December 11th, Hao Ping attended a conference forum where presidents and scholars from prestigious universities in China and abroad exchanged ideas on the theme of “Developing Confucius Institutes and Building a Community with Shared Future for Mankind”. Liu Yandong, vice premier of the State Council and chairman of the Council of Confucius Institute Headquarters, attended the conference and delivered a speech. Chen Baosheng, minister of the Ministry of Education and vice president of the Confucius Institute Head Office, presided over the conference. On the morning of December 12th, Hao Ping attended a council held by Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) as an executive director.
On December 12th, the opening ceremony of the 12th Confucius Institute Conference was held. Liu Yandong pointed out at the conference that since its founding thirteen years ago, the Confucius Institute has remained committed to benefiting all through joint partnerships, making positive contributions to friendships between China and other countries, and contributing to exchanges and mutual learning between China and foreign civilizations. Currently, 525 Confucius Institutes and 1,113 classrooms have been set up in 146 countries and regions around the world, with more than 9 million enrolled students pursuing various goals and academic degrees.
After the opening ceremony, Peking University signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban). Hao Ping attended the signing ceremony, where he stressed that this strategic cooperation aims to bring the respective advantages of PKU and Hanban into full play, jointly carrying out Chinese international education and research on cross-cultural studies with the promotion of the Chinese language. It also involves co-hosting leadership training for Confucius Institutes around the world, and developing a series of training courses for international Chinese teachers. In addition, the two parties will prepare together for the first "World Chinese Language Forum" in 2018, which is expected to lay a solid academic foundation for international advocacy of the Chinese language. Wang Bo signed the agreement on behalf of PKU, and Zhao Guocheng, deputy director of the Hanban office, signed the agreement on behalf of the Confucius Institute. Representatives and deans of Confucius Institutes from home and abroad witnessed the signing ceremony.
On the evening of December 12th, Hao Ping met with all deans of 10 Peking University Confucius Institutes. He expressed his appreciation for their efforts in promoting exchanges in the humanities between China and foreign countries, and promised that Peking University will continue to work closely with these institutes to step up its efforts of supporting the construction of Confucius Institutes and jointly developing the Peking University Confucius Institutes. The participating deans respectively introduced the operation and characteristics of their Confucius Institutes. They also discussed issues such as the construction of Confucius Institutes, teacher reserves, and instruction materials.
Written by: Wang Xi
Edited by: Fu Wenyun, Karen Xu
