The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is bringing together 300 directors of North American and Oceanian Confucius institutes to Honolulu for the Joint Conference of North American and Oceanian Confucius Institutes on June 21–22.
The two-day conference, to be held held at UH Mānoa and the Waikīkī Beach Marriott Resort and Spa, will focus on “The Sustainable Growth of Confucius Institutes.”
Delegation from the People’s Republic of China is to be led by Madame Xu Lin, member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, counselor of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China and director-general of the Hanban Confucius Institute Headquarters.
Participants include 20 university presidents; approximately 240 Chinese and host-country directors of 107 U.S. Confucius Institutes, 12 Canadian Confucius Institutes, and 17 Oceanian Confucius Institutes; around 20 delegates from 15 U.S. and five Oceanian Confucius classrooms; and approximately 10 members of boards of the Asia Society and the College Board in the U.S.
The Chinese government supports more than 400 Confucius Institutes around the globe, a quarter of them are concentrated in North America. They promote instruction in Chinese language and culture from pre-school to post-university levels and have been instrumental in the striking growth in Chinese language instruction in the U.S. in the past decade.
