“The U.S. State Department strongly supports Chinese Confucius Institutes in promoting Chinese language in the U.S. Though Confucius Institutes have been founded in many states in the U.S., the capital city of Washington D.C. has finally ushered in its first Confucius Institute today. I wish the Confucius Institute at the George Washington University a great success.” Ms. Susan Stevenson, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State expressed the above good wishes at the opening ceremony of the first Confucius Institute in Washington D.C. on April 10th.

Learning Chinese language and understanding Chinese culture has been fashionable in the U.S., and this “Chinese Fever” is continuously growing with the development and opening up of China. The U.S. Department of Education commissioned the Center for Applied Linguistics to carry out a survey on Chinese teaching at U.S. schools, and the findings showed 27,500 junior and senior high schools in the U.S. offered at least one foreign language course and the proportion of those offering Chinese teaching increased from 1% in 1997 to 4% in 2008. Stevenson said the U.S. government had launched a series of studies on China programs in recent years, such as the “100,000 Strong” Initiative launched in 2010. To promote its implementation, the non-profit “100,000 Strong Foundation” was established at American University in Washington, D.C. under the impetus of U.S. State Department, and an office was set up in Los Angeles in the western region of the United States. In addition, “Confucius Institutes provide more Americans with the opportunity to learn Chinese in the U.S.”

Hanban has founded 358 Confucius Institutes and 500 Confucius Classrooms at secondary and elementary schools in 105 countries, and the number of registered students had reached 500,000 by the end of 2011. Since 2005, there have been more than 90 Confucius Institutes founded in the U.S., which makes the U.S. the country where the most Confucius Institutes are founded in the world. Founding a Confucius Institute in Washington D.C., the U.S. capital, is an important measure that George Washington University is committed to cooperation with China. According to the responsible persons of George Washington University, the Confucius Institute features Chinese language and other relevant courses it offers to staffs of complex government bodies as well as diplomats and business professionals working in the Greater Washington DC Area by leveraging its strength of being located in the capital city.

At the opening ceremony, Andrew Cheste, a U.S. student majoring in biology at Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, the George Washington University, told the reporter that Confucius Institute was a bridge that allows the American people to gain an unprejudiced understating of Chinese culture. This young American man who has learnt Chinese for 3 years also recited with great passion the “Saying Good-bye to Cambridge Again” written by Chinese poet Xu Zhimo. His appropriate intonation and proficient Chinese pronunciation moved the audience. As Xu Lin, Director-General of Hanban, stated at the opening ceremony, American people all used to learn about China through media, such as via the Internet and IPHONEs etc. in the past, and what they learnt might be different from the truth, but now the Confucius Institutes have built a bridge and opened a window for them so that they can have the opportunity to realize and understand the authentic Chinese culture with their own eyes and in person. It is also one of the important reasons for the George Washington University to found the Confucius Institute.