Confucius Institute is a non-profit public institution aimed to promote Chinese language and culture and facilitate cultural exchanges. It operates within existing universities and colleges all over the world, providing financing, teachers and instructional materials. “To be fond of knowledge is better than merely to acquire it; to take delight in it is still better than merely to be fond of it,” these are the words told by Confucius to his disciples more than 2,000 years ago. Had he had lived long enough, he would have been glad to see that his words are right today. The desire to learn Chinese is especially noticeable in the Far East of Russia. The two countries have a long land common boundary, and the two nations were molding a special relationship. According to the logic of Russia’s foreign policy in the Asia Pacific, the establishment of an advanced environment of international relations is of crucial importance [1]. The Russian Far East completed two production sharing projects: Sakhalin-I and Sakhalin-II and is now exporting processed petroleum to markets including Japan, China and South Korea. We resumed power supplies to China, and a high-voltage transmission line is under construction now. In its turn, the local economy of the RFE is increasingly reliant on Chinese goods, services, and labor. China and Russia concurred to stop devastating flooding on the Amur River, which hit Russia and China in the summer of 2013. There will be cooperation on astronautics, high technology, nuclear energy, infrastructure construction and agriculture. All these large-scale projects need a great number of specialists who can speak fluent Chinese. Confucius Institute organizes courses in Chinese language, culture, society and history; facilitates business contacts between universities; and conducts research in teaching methods and intercultural communication. Other enterprises are Chinese modern art exhibitions, concerts by common singers, television packages, translations of Chinese literature. Confucius Institute also has non-academic goals, one of which is to enhance mutual understanding and friendship [2]. There are opinions that the spread of Confucius Institutes is attempts of the Chinese government to build up its global image. For many young people in the Russian Far East, Confucius Institute as opening a door to an entire new world.
Библиографическая ссылка
Mel’nikov P.N., Chibisova O.V. Confucius Institute as Intercultural mediator // Международный журнал экспериментального образования. – 2014. – № 6-2. – С. 87-87;URL: https://expeducation.ru/ru/article/view?id=5202 (дата обращения: 19.04.2024).