On September 6th, 2010, the opening ceremony of 2010 Joint Conference of European Confucius Institutes was held at Confucius Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine of London South Bank University. Ambassador Liu Xiaoming attended the ceremony and delivered a speech. Also present were over 200 people, including Mme. Xu Lin, Director-General of Hanban, Mr. Qiao Zonghuai and Mr. Zhu Weijiu, Counsellors of the State Council, Mr. Mark Hendrick MP, Chair of All Party Parliamentary China Group, representatives from the Confucius Institutes and Classrooms in 26 European countries, heads of 14 universities in China and representatives for the education section of the Chinese embassies in 10 European countries.
In his speech, Ambassador Liu said that, as China continues to enjoy fast economic growth and extensive contact with the rest of the world, there has been ever greater demand for mandarin learning in many countries. It is estimated that 40 million people are learning mandarin worldwide, and the number of mandarin learners is on a rapid growth. The Confucius Institutes were set up to respond to the demand caused by the global "mandarin fever". They played a great role in promoting mandarin learning and the Chinese culture and achieved good results. The Confucius Institutes have evolved into an important platform for foreigners to learn Chinese and understand the Chinese culture. And as such they contributed a lot to promoting cultural exchanges and deepening the friendship and cooperation between the Chinese people and peoples all over the world. Ambassador Liu noted that while we are heartened by the vibrant growth of Confucius Institutes, we also need to carefully plan for their long-term future. He hoped the sustainable development of Confucius Institutes would be a focus in the future discussion and work. The Ambassador wished the conference a complete success and the Confucius Institutes and Classrooms every success.
Mme. Xu Lin, Director-General of Hanban, introduced in her speech the latest developments of the Confucius Institutes and the mandarin teaching around the globe and in Europe, proposed the topics to be discussed at the Conferences and encouraged the participants to take the opportunity to make in-depth exchanges and discuss the important strategies for the development of Confucius Institute, so as to further promote the development of the Confucius Institutes and the mandarin teaching in Europe.
Mr. Mark Hendrick MP, Chair of All Party Parliamentary China Group, and Professor Martin Earwicker, Vice Chancellor of the London South Bank University, respectively made remarks. They highly praised the constantly rising international status and influence of China and the increasing influence of mandarin around the world, stressed the importance for the British students to learn Chinese, made positive comments on the role of the Confucius Institutes in mandarin teaching and expressed their support and good wishes to the promotion of mandarin teaching and promotion of Chinese culture in the UK.
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This is the second session of the Joint Conference of Confucius Institutes in Europe. The first session was held in October 2009 in Leuven, Belgium. At this three-day conference, the attending representatives will have in-depth discussions on the compilation of mandarin textbooks, teacher trainings, improvement of teaching methods and other relevant topics through theme presentations and group discussions.
