Hanban Delegation Visits Confucius Institute at University at Albany

On the morning of Apr. 10th local time, Jing Wei, Deputy Director-General of Hanban and Deputy Chief Executive of Confucius Institute Headquarters, along with two colleagues visited the State University of New York at Albany to supervise the work of the Confucius Institute.

Jing Wei and her delegation first communicated with teachers and staff of the Confucius Institute, and inquired about the development, difficulties and challenges of Chinese language teaching and cultural activities in the institute. Jing Wei pointed out that the institute can adopt a more flexible and diverse curriculum to meet different people’s needs for Chinese language and culture as well as a well-targeted and characteristic language curriculum based on the State University of New York. At the same time, it should strengthen exchanges and consensus with partner universities in China to achieve mutual promotion and win-win results.

Jing Wei listening to work report by Chinese Director of Confucius Institute at University at Albany and his counterpart

Afterwards, Jing Wei held talks with Professor James R. Stellar, President of the University at Albany. The two sides had in-depth exchanges on issues including international education cooperation, Chinese language promotion and teacher training. James R. Stellar introduced the philosophy and guiding principles of the university and extended his support to the Confucius Institute. He said that in today’s international context, the university will embrace the world in a more open manner and run international education. Jing Wei appreciated it and welcomed more US students and teachers to study in and visit China.

Jing Wei, President and Professor James R. Stellar of University at Albany and others taking a group photo

The two sides both hoped that the institute will become an organic component of the international education system of the University at Albany and carry out interscholastic cooperation projects in multiple channels and modes so as to contribute to China-US exchanges in education and culture.

After the meeting, Jing Wei and her delegation visited the Confucius Institute’s teaching point at Tech Valley High School, had friendly talks with 22 students from the tenth grade and exchanged views with Principal James Niedermeier on the development of Chinese language programme of the school.

The Confucius Institute at the State University of New York at Albany was set up in December 2013, with the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics as its Chinese partner. So far, the Confucius Institute has held a number of large scale cultural activities and hosted about 100 lectures on Chinese culture and economy. Chinese language teaching activities have been deeply rooted in libraries and communities in the capital region of the New York State.