From December 10 to 11, the 11th Confucius Institute Conference was held in Kunming, Yunnan Province. More than 2,200 delegates from 140 countries and regions attended the conference. On behalf of CUPL, President Huang Jin was invited to the conference, accompanied by Chinese and foreign Co-Directors of three Confucius Institutes of CUPL and representatives from three universities which the Confucius Institutes are affiliated with.
Liu Yandong, Vice Premier of the State Council and Chairperson of the Council of Confucius Institute Headquarters, was present at the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech. Chen Baosheng, Minister of Education and Vice Chairman of the Council of Confucius Institute Headquarters, presided over the opening ceremony.
At the opening ceremony, Vice Premier Liu Yandong presented awards to outstanding Confucius Institutes (classrooms), outstanding teachers and Chinese organizations. Professor Luminita Bailan, Foreign Co-Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Bucharest, won the outstanding teacher award.This award marks the first award that CUPL has received from the Confucius Institute headquarters (Hanban), thus boasting a landmark significance. As one of the 30 outstanding teachers, Professor Luminita Bailan won the award from among more than 1000 Chinese and foreign directors worldwide. Professor Luminita Bailan has been a foreign co-director since the founding of the CI at UB in 2013. For three years, he has been dedicated to his work, making selfless contributions to promote Chinese culture and Chinese language in Romania and also supporting the culture and academic exchanges between China and Romania. This award not only demonstrated the official recognition for Professor Luminita Bailan’s personal achievements but also for CUPL’s successful co-establishing of the CI at UB.
In the morning of December 11, President Huang Jin delivered a keynote speech on the president’s forum, themed on “how to give full play to the Council of Confucius Institute”, and had an in-depth exchange of views on many issues with presidents from both home and abroad.
In the afternoon of December 10, Prof. Dong Jingbo, Chinese Co-Director of the CI at UB, delivered a keynote speech at the panel on “multilingual Chinese teaching materials” and had a discussion with Chinese and Foreign co-directors of Confucius Institutes.
The closing ceremony was held in the afternoon of December 11. Hao Ping, Minister of Education and Executive Member of the Council of the Confucius Institute, delivered a special report on “China’s Education Reform and Opening Up to the Outside World”. The closing ceremony was hosted by Ma Jianfei, Deputy Director-General of the Confucius Institute Headquarters and Deputy Director of Hanban.
It is reported that there are 511 Confucius Institutes and 1073 Confucius Classrooms in 140 countries. From the past to 2016, 46 thousand full-time and part-time international teachers have been working in Confucius Institutes worldwide. Confucius institutes have provided education for 2.1 million students and have held various cultural activities. A total of 13 million people have benefited from these activities.
Li Dandan, Director of Confucius Institute Office of CUPL, also attended the conference.
