On Sep. 28-30, 1st Joint Meeting of United States Confucius Institutes was held at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA. ECNU delegation led by Vice President Mei Bing attended the meeting.
Ms. Xu Lin addressed on the opening ceremony of the joint meeting.
Xu Lin, Chief Executive of Confucius Institute Headquarters and Director-General of Hanban, made a speech on the opening ceremony of the meeting. According to Ms. Xu, the Chinese Government attaches great importance to relations with the United States, and strongly supports the development of Confucius Institutes, especially the Confucius Institutes in the United States. To date, Hanban has set over 430 Confucius Institutes and more than 650 Confucius Classrooms in 117 countries. Among them, 97 Confucius Institutes and 400 Confucius Classrooms are in the United States. That makes the United States have the largest number of Confucius Institutes in the world.
A group photo of ECNU delegation at the meeting.
The joint meeting attracted more than 260 directors and representatives of Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms in the United States. During the meeting, participants discussed issues including the cultivation of local Chinese teachers, setting Chinese major for pedagogical students, and the planning and preparations for the Chinese Day of World Confucius Institutes & Confucius Classrooms to be held on Sep.19, 2014.
During the event, Mei Bing had a meeting with directors of 6 United States Confucius Institutes supported by ECNU. She hoped the institutes to develop much better with elaboration of their advantages and exploration of their own characteristics. Mei said ECNU would continue providing great support to Confucius Institutes’ teaching and research work, as well as cultural exchange activities.
ECNU delegation visit Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at University of Michigan.
After the joint meeting, ECNU delegation visited Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at University of Michigan. During the visit, both sides had a heartily discussion and exchanges on future co-operations of researches and teacher development.
Written by: Liu Jinyu
