The old man would surely be proud. This week some 300 representatives, from 35different countries, gathered in Beijing’ s Great Hall of the People for the first-ever Confucius Institute conference. This was no philosophical pow-wow, but the world’ s largest-ever conference on teaching Chinese as a foreign language. Confucius Institutes are China’ s answer to the Alliance Francaise, Germany’ s Goethe Institute and the British Council, and officials hope they will help meet a growing global demand for Chinese-language education.
Confucius Institutes have got off to a roaring start. The first was established in Uzbekistan in June 2004, the 75th in Poland exactly two years later. No other Chinese international franchise has done as well. Officially, they are overseen by Hanban, the agency charged by the Education Ministry with promoting the teaching of Chinese overseas.
But Hanban’ s staff of only around 50 can barely cope with the volume of applications, on top of its other duties which include administering Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, the standard test of proficiency in Chinese.
So Hanban has let the network grow organically. One key to its success has been the use of joint ventures. The institutes are not run by Hanban, but by partnerships between Chinese universities and local universities in the host country. The host university takes the responsibility for housing the institute; its Chinese partner provides the teaching staff and materials.
A second advantage is the institutes’ ability to adapt to local demands, rather than following a set curriculum. Thus, in Nairobi, you can learn how to make Tianjin dumplings, while in Singapore you can sign up for a 14-day study tour of the sage’ s hometown, Qufu, in Shandong province.
Hanban claims that the primary role of the Confucius Institutes is to teach Chinese, but their name is also evocative of China’ s former influence in Asia, and its growing presence now. Even in the 21st century, Confucius is proving to be China’ s best ambassador.
无孔老夫子肯定会感到自豪。本周，来自35个国家的近300名代表在北京人民大会堂召开了首届孔子学院大会。这不是一次讨论哲学思想的会议，而是迄今为止最大的一次研究对外汉语教学的大会。孔子学院的意义如同法兰西联谊会、德国歌德学院和英国文化协会，中国官员希望它将有助于满足全球对汉语教学日益增长的需求。
孔子学院一开始发展就非常迅猛。第一所孔子学院于2004年6月在乌兹别克斯坦塔什干成立，短短两年后在波兰克拉科夫就成立了第75所。目前中国还没有哪一家国际机构能与之媲美。这些孔子学院的官方主管部门为国家汉办（国家汉语国际推广领导小组办公室），后者是教育部下属机构，负责海外汉语教学推广。
不过，仅有50名左右工作人员的汉办实在难以应付纷至沓来的办学申请，而且它还担负其它一些职责比如汉语水平考试管理（考查汉语掌握程度的标准考试）。
因此，汉办有条不紊地扩大办学网络。其成功的秘诀之一是采取合资办学的方式。这些学院不归汉办管理，而归一些中国大学和所在国大学联合主办。所在国大学负责安排校舍，而中方则负责提供师资和教材。
这种做法的第二个好处在于，学院可以因地制宜，而不用遵循固定课程模式。这样一来，在内罗毕可以学做天津包子，而在新加坡则可以报名参加赴孔圣人故乡——山东曲阜的为期十四天的学术旅行团。
汉办称，孔子学院的首要任务是汉语教学，但是它们的名字也让人想起了中国在亚洲曾经拥有的影响力及其越来越重要的地位。虽说已经到了21世纪，但事实表明孔子仍是中国最杰出的使者。