ASU Confucius Institute’s US-China education exchange efforts honored by Chinese government

The Confucius Institute at Arizona State University was honored as “2016 Confucius Institute of the Year” at the 11th Global Confucius Institute Conference earlier this month. 

ASU Vice Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Stefanie Lindquist accepted this award, which was presented by Vice Premier Liu Yandong of the People’s Republic of China in Kunming, China. 

"It was a privilege for me to participate in the award ceremony on behalf of our dedicated faculty and staff at ASU's Confucius Institute,” Lindquist said. “The award is a tribute to their energetic and visionary leadership and to the outstanding teamwork of the Institute's faculty and staff."

A distinctive feature of the Confucius Institute at ASU is the synergy that comes from cooperation between the Confucius Institute and the Chinese degree programs in the School of International Letters and Cultures, including the federally funded Chinese Language Flagship Program.

To promote Chinese learning in local schools, the Confucius Institute has worked since 2009 to establish dedicated “Confucius Classroom” partnerships with 14 elementary and secondary schools in five school districts in Arizona. To date, the ASU Confucius Institute is proud to have more than 4,000 students studying Chinese in these schools.

Through these schools, the ASU Confucius Institute is able to develop an overarching, integrated Chinese curriculum and learning system based on Arizona K-12 academic standards. The ultimate goal is to ensure students will be linguistically and culturally prepared to handle the complex demands of a global society.

The institute also keeps a close tie with the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China L.A. In September this year, the renowned China National Orchestra of China National Opera & Dance Drama Theater was invited to present a special cultural performance at ASU’s Tempe campus co-hosted by the consulate.

Founded in 2007, the ASU Confucius Institute has maintained a partnership among ASU, Sichuan University, and the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) in China. The ASU institute has a broad mission to promote scholarship about China and foster high-quality Chinese language and cultural education within schools and the community at large.

The director of the ASU Confucius Institute is Robert Joe Cutter, who is a professor of Chinese in the School of International Letters and Cultures and who served as the founding director of that school from 2005–June 2016. Fannie Tam is the associate director of the Confucius Institute.

Watch a video about ASU Confucius Institute below: