Themed “Partners Hand in Hand,” the 5th Confucius Institute Headquarters Open Day was held on 28 September 2018, the 2,569 anniversary of the birth of Confucius. Liu Xianghong, deputy secretary of Party Committee of the Open University of China, attended the event on behalf of the Chinese institution of the Confucius Institute at Michigan State University.
At the opening ceremony, prize winners from previous editions of the “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students and the “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students performed a traditional Chinese talent show, demonstrating their love for Chinese culture in the form of Peking Opera, dance, poetry recitation, and calligraphy. Ma Jianfei, deputy chief executive of the Confucius Institute Headquarters and deputy director-general of Hanban, delivered a welcome speech.
The OUC delegation led by Liu Xianghong visited a number of exhibitions and activities, including exhibition areas with the theme of “Win-Win Cooperation in the Belt and Road Initiative” and “Photography by Chinese Volunteers”, as well as interactive activities such as “Smart Music Class” and a human-machine interactive Chinese cultural experience activity. They also attended a cultural salon about Chinese classic poems led by Professor Kang Zhen from the School of Chinese Language and Literature at Beijing Normal University. The lecture was synchronously broadcast on the Confucius Institute Online platform, enabling students at Confucius Institutes worldwide to watch the lectures online and communicate and interact with each other.
To date, 530 Confucius Institutes and 1,113 Confucius Classrooms for primary and secondary school students in 149 countries or regions have been launched, staffed by 46,200 part and full-time teachers from both China and other countries and regions around the world. The Confucius Institutes have hosted more than nine million students and held a range of cultural activities for more than 100 million participants.
By Zhang Xiangwen, OUC