【正确答案】Confucius Institute Confucius Institutes, set up worldwide by China's National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, are educational and cultural exchange institutions that aim to promote Chinese language and spread Chinese culture and sinology. One of their most important functions is to provide Chinese language learners around the world with standardized modern Chinese teaching materials and the most formal, authoritative platform for teaching and learning Chinese. Headquartered in Beijing and with branches around the world, Confucius Institutes are non-profit public institutions. The first Confucius Institute was established in Seoul, South Korea, on 21st November, 2004. So far, there are more than 300 Confucius Institutes in the whole world.