Friday, May 5, 2006
Photo by Jared Gab
Shelley Wu, Olathe resident, performs a traditional Chinese solo on the Gu Zheng, a Chinese table harp, during "An Evening of Music and Dance" last night. The event was held as part of the dedication for the University of Kansas' Confucius Institute at the Edwards Campus.
The University of Kansas Edwards Campus became the site of the fourth Confucius Institute in the United States on Thursday.
It was dedicated by the Chinese vice minister of education. The other three are located in Washington, D.C., Chicago and New York City.
The Chinese Ministry of Education chose the University of Kansas because of its strong and well-known Chinese and East Asian Studies programs. The University and the state have both had a successful relationship with China in the past.
The Institute “goes beyond languages to culture,” Todd Cohen, University spokesman, said.
The Confucius Institute will provide education in the Chinese language, but it will also provide a cultural education for businessmen and women seeking to work in China.
Bill Tsutsui, the Institute’s director, said it would take several offices in Regnier Hall and would offer non-credit classes for both KU students and the community on subjects like business etiquette and how Confuciusianism affects China.
It will also have cultural programming like film festivals, lectures and speech contests in Chinese, and will often collaborate with the Center for East Asian Studies on the Lawrence campus to bring events here.
“We’re a public university and we’re supposed to be serving Kansans,” Tsutsui said, explaining the programs the Institute would offer the community.
One reason Kansas was chosen as a site was that China was the third-largest importer of Kansas products. Cohen said the Institute could provide relevant information on trade and economics for Kansans who wish to do business there.
The Confucius Institute will also support language teachers and provide standardized language testing for people. Tsutsui said the standardized Chinese language test helped employers judge an applicant’s skills better.
The University was asked to be the site of the Institute when Chancellor Robert Hemenway went to Beijing on a courtesy call to the ministry of education. Tsutsui said he thought Hemenway did an outstanding job of selling the University to the Chinese ministry after the initial offer.
Tsutsui is a Japanese expert, but was chosen as director because of his work on outreach. He said he has been working with Kindergarten through 12th-grade schools throughout the state, trying to establish more Asian-language programs.
Right now, several Confucius Institutes exist in Europe, Africa and East Asia, but the Chinese government intends to have 100 sites when all is said and done. Forty of them will be in the United States. They are just getting started, Tsutsui said.
— Edited by Jodi Ann Holopirek
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