The Confucius Institute at the Ateneo de Manila University, in cooperation with the International Society for the Studies of Chinese Overseas (ISSCO), held an international conference entitled Chinese Language Teaching and Education in a Globalizing Southeast Asia last August 17-18, 2012 at the Crown Plaza Galleria, Metro Manila.

Topics discussed were on Chinese Language Teaching and Education in Southeast Asia history and politics; culture and society; strategy, promotion, and marketing; methodology and policies; and challenges, among others. Presenters came from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the United States, as well as the Philippines. 40 teachers from both the Confucius Institute and Chinese schools in Manila were invited.

The conference featured Southeast Asia regional characteristics, statistics analysis, and topic oriented sessions. For the regional characteristics, 14 presenters from different countries introduced different situations like whether the Chinese education in Singapore belongs to “Hua Wen Jiao Yu” or “Hua Wen Jiao Xue”; why in Malaysia the Chinese education is considered as a mother language rather than as a second language. Secondly is the statistical analysis which made the speeches more persuasive. Such as on the first session of the conference, Professor Leo Suryadinata, Director of the Chinese Heritage Centre; Professor of Rajaratnam School of International Studies, NTU, gave a speech entitled Recent Chinese Language Education in Southeast Asia: Some Reflections in which he presented a brief analysis of Chinese language education among Southeast Asian countries. In the topic oriented sessions, 14 presenters were divided into 5 major topics such as history and politics and culture and society. This layout made the sessions clear and concise in their objectives.

Throughout the conference, the presenters elicited comparative lessons, presented new insights and inputs, and tackled current research on how Southeast Asian countries have addressed the challenges of supporting, maintaining, and promoting Chinese education and teaching. What was presented to the audience was a high-specification, high-level international Chinese Education Conference.

After the meeting, the organizers will publish the proceedings of the meeting in both Chinese and English languages to let more people know about Southeast Asia Chinese teaching and Chinese education and essentially let the results of the seminar be widely publicized.