A YNU delegation poses for a photograph with presidents of its four subordinated Confucius Institutes during the 13th Confucius Institute Conference which took place in Chengdu city, Sichuan province, from Dec 4 to 5. [Photo/ynu.edu.cn]

Yunnan University (YNU) sent a delegation to attend the 13th Confucius Institute Conference which took place in Chengdu city, Sichuan province, from Dec 4 to 5. 

The delegation was comprised of Yang Lin, Party secretary of YNU; Zhang Li, the university’s vice-president; representatives from YNU’s office for Confucius Institute affairs, and representatives from YNU’s four subordinated Confucius Institutes. 

At the invitation of the Confucius Institute headquarters, Zhang Li delivered a speech on building digital Confucius Institutes at the presidents’ forum held on Dec 5. 

During the conference, Yang went to a text book exhibition, which formed part of the conference, where he visited the stand for Yunnan University Publishing House. The stand promoted phrasebooks for several languages of Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, India and Thailand. 

At a meeting involving the presidents of the four Confucius Institutes, Yang proposed that their institutes jointly hold an annual council meeting, which was quickly agreed by attendees. 

According to the final resolution, the first annual council meeting for YNU’s four subordinated Confucius Institutes will be held at the University of Teheran in 2019. 

In the future, the council meeting will be rotated between the four Confucius Institutes to share experience of developing the institute.

In 2018, YNU’s four subordinated Confucius Institutes recruited a total of 10,584 students and set up 67 affiliated teaching offices. They have organized 115 cultural promotion activities involving nearly 83,347 participants. 

They have also organized 11 HSK (a standardized Chinese test) and HSKK (a standardized Chinese oral test) examinations, attracting 4,606 participants. 

The activities held by YNU’s Confucius Institutes were widely covered by Xinhua News Agency, the People’s Daily, China News and other local media organizations in countries where the institutes operate.

Yang Lin (second from right), Party secretary of YNU and Zhang Li (first from right), vice-president of YNU, visit the stand for YNU Publishing House at a text book exhibition, which was part of the 13th Confucius Institute Conference. [Photo/ynu.edu.cn]