The 2017 Joint Conference of Canadian Confucius Institutes, sponsored by the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and organized by the University of Regina, was held in Regina, Canada, on October 30th local time. Kevin Doherty, Minister of Advanced Education of Saskatchewan Province, Vianne Timmons, President of the University of Regina, Yang Xinyu, Minister-Counselor of the Education Section of the Chinese Embassy in Canada, and Chen Wei, Deputy Party Secretary of CPC at Hunan University attended and addressed the opening ceremony. Over 50 Chinese and foreign representatives from 12 Confucius Institutes and some Confucius Classrooms in Canada, the Education Section (Offices) of the Chinese Embassy (Consulates-General) in Canada, and the Confucius Institute Headquarters attended the conference.
A group photo
At the opening ceremony, Vianne Timmons, President of the University of Regina, delivered a warm speech. She said that the University of Regina was the first Canadian university to establish cooperative relations with China and attaches great importance to the friendly cooperation with China. Since its establishment, the Confucius Institute at the University of Regina has actively promoted China-Canada educational and cultural exchanges, enriched the diverse campus culture, and made important contributions to helping teachers and students of the university and local people learn the Chinese language and understand China as well as enhancing the friendship between the two peoples. The Confucius Institute is a successful example of China-Canada friendly exchanges. The university will do its utmost to support the development of the Confucius Institute.
Vianne Timmons delivering a speech
Chen Wei, Deputy Party Secretary of CPC at Hunan University, said that the establishment of the Confucius Institute has pushed the inter-university cooperation between Hunan University and the University of Regina to a new high and increasingly become the most important platform to promote scientific cooperation, academic research and cultural exchanges between the two universities. He said that Hunan University will fully explore the characteristics and advantages of its disciplines, integrate the resources of its own and in Hunan Province, and establish a Confucius Institute resource reserve to guarantee a sustainable development of the Confucius Institute at the University of Regina.
Kevin Doherty, Minister of Advanced Education of Saskatchewan Province, said that two universities in Saskatchewan set up Confucius Institutes with the support of the Confucius Institute Headquarters, which has made Saskatchewan’s advanced education more international. This has made important contributions to promoting economic and trade exchanges between Saskatchewan and China, as well as helping local people better understand the Chinese language and culture.
Kevin Doherty delivering a speech
Yang Xinyu, Minister Counselor of the Education Section of the Chinese Embassy in Canada, spoke highly of the positive roles that the Confucius Institutes in Canada have played over the past decade in teaching the Chinese language, spreading the Chinese culture, serving universities and local communities, promoting China-Canada people-to-people and cultural exchanges, as well as enhancing mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples. She encouraged the Confucius Institutes to always uphold the principles of wholeheartedly serving the Canadian people in learning Chinese language, helping local communities understand China and the Chinese culture, as well as promoting people-to-people and cultural exchange between the two countries, further enhance teaching quality, and achieve localized and distinctive development so as to better act as a bridge for China-Canada cooperation and exchanges. She said that the Chinese Embassy in Canada will support as always the construction and development of the Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms in Canada.
Yang Xinyu delivering a speech
After the opening ceremony, the representatives had in-depth and detailed case sharing and discussions on topics such as “opportunities and challenges for the development of Confucius Institute”, “distinctive development and collaborative innovation of Confucius Institute” and “training local teachers and improving teaching quality”. All the representatives noted that the practical and efficient conference witnessed experience exchanging, pooled consensus, yielded fruitful results, and would conduce to promoting the teaching quality and level of the Confucius Institutes in Canada.
Case sharing and discussions
At present, Canada has established 12 Confucius Institutes and 36 Confucius Classrooms, with Chinese language taught in more than 142 local primary and secondary schools. In 2016, the number of registered students was up to 21,042, and more than 500 cultural activities of various kinds were carried out with 167,108 participants. (cited and source from Confucius Institute Headquarters)
