CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE TO BE ESTABLISHED AT OU

Signing Ceremony and Symposium Scheduled Aug. 23

NORMAN – To strengthen the understanding, opportunities and bonds between the people of the United States and the people of China, the University of Oklahoma is being named a Confucius Institute site.  The Institute, which will promote and develop Chinese language education, and cultural and business exchange with the People’s Republic of China, builds on OU’s strength as one of the few universities across the nation offering an undergraduate major in Chinese.

“It is a great honor for OU to be selected as one of a very small number of universities in the nation to host a Confucius Institute,” said OU President David L. Boren.  “There is no more important relationship to the security and quality of life for the entire globe during this century than the relationship between China and the United States.  OU proudly accepts the challenge to enhance understanding and mutual respect between the people of China and the United States.”

“OU’s selection to host a Confucius Institute is both a great honor and an excellent opportunity,” said Paul Bell, dean of the OU College of Arts and Sciences, who attended the first Confucius Institute Conference in Beijing in July.  “OU’s already strong programs in Chinese language instruction, including one of the few undergraduate majors in Chinese in the country, and our innovative programs for teaching Chinese in grades K-12 provide a solid foundation on which to build a wide variety of new programs to meet the growing demand for Chinese instruction from all sectors of society. Through the Confucius Institute, OU will become a national resource center for education about Chinese language and culture.”

To signal the establishment of the Institute, the public is invited to attend the signing ceremony, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 23, in Beaird Lounge of Oklahoma Memorial Union, 900 Asp Ave., and a symposium on “Chinese Language Education and U.S.-China Relations,” scheduled for 2 p.m. in the union’s Scholars Room.

In addition to Boren and Bell, participants in the signing ceremony will include Madame Liu Chuansheng, chairman of the Beijing Normal University Council, and Hua Jinzhou, consulate general of the People’s Republic of China in Houston.

The afternoon symposium will be moderated by Bell and include presentations by Counsel General Hua; Madame Liu; Gui Ming-Chao, professor of Chinese at OU; Peter Gries, director of the OU Institute for U.S.-China Issues; and Jessica Stowell, program coordinator of the Oklahoma Institute for Teaching East Asia at OU-Tulsa.

The OU Confucius Institute will bring together the college-level Chinese language program of the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics on the Norman campus and the K-12 Chinese language programs of the Oklahoma Institute for Teaching East Asia at OU-Tulsa, both of which are in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the outreach programs of the College of Continuing Education. Through the new institute, OU will offer a variety of credit and non-credit courses on the Chinese language from the beginning to advanced levels, to school children, college students, business people and travelers. The Institute also will provide training programs for teachers to allow them to become certified teachers of Chinese and offer intensive summer language programs both in Norman and Beijing in cooperation with Beijing Normal University.

As part of the cooperative agreement, Beijing Normal University will send faculty to OU who specialize in teaching Chinese as a foreign language and assist OU in organizing language training courses and workshops on teaching Chinese. The Office of Chinese Language Council International, also known as Hanban, will assist OU in recruiting qualified Chinese language teachers to teach at the K-12 level and authorize OU to become a testing site for the proficiency certification test in the Chinese language.

OU was named a Confucius Institute site as a result of efforts in outreach and Chinese language enhancement.  The Institute is named after the famous Chinese thinker, educator and social philosopher whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced East Asian life and thought and have had an important influence throughout the world.

The Confucius Institute at OU – an alliance between the university and Beijing Normal University under the sponsorship of the Office of Chinese Language Council International – joins a global network of more than 80 such institutes in 38 countries.

For more information about the signing ceremony or the symposium, or for accommodations on the basis of disability, call OU Special Events at (405) 325-3784.