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POLITICS: China Revives Confucianism to Win the World Over

BEIJING, Dec 21 2009 (IPS) - As western nations and the values of liberal capitalism received a battering in the financial storm, China’s emergence as a pillar of economic stability and growth has fed a new craze in all things Chinese – from language to philosophy and culture.

“We did not have to create demand for China studies and we did not have to embark on aggressive campaigns to promote Chinese language learning,” said Xu Lin, chief executive of the Confucius Institute Headquarters in Beijing. “It is China’s rapid development and the craving of people all over the world to know more about China that is forcing us to expand our network of institutes at such speed.”

Xu Lin spoke at the 4th Confucius Institute Conference held in the Chinese capital last week – an increasingly trumpeted forum showcasing China’s emergence as cultural superpower. The event attracted participants from 87 countries around the world and Beijing had reasons to be pleased.

Five years ago, as part of their effort to project “soft power,” Chinese leaders dedicated a whopping 10 million U.S. dollars to establishing 100 Confucius institutes worldwide by 2010 to teach Chinese culture and language. The drive has paid off lavishly – at the end of 2009 there were 282 Confucius institutes in various countries. Beijing’s main concern has become the huge unmet demand for Chinese-language-tuition in many others.

Officials at the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban) estimate there are around 40 million Chinese language learners worldwide. The latest Confucius Institute Conference focused on efforts to spread Chinese language studies outside of universities into broader local communities.

How to expand the projection of China’s soft power has become a focus of debate among scholars in the country, particularly after Japan and India announced their own ambitious plans to raise their cultural profiles internationally.

In 2007 Tokyo said it would aim to establish a further 100 centres for Japanese language studies worldwide. India is also contemplating a cultural campaign to win followers for its rich cultural traditions.

Some Chinese experts point out that relying only on the promotion of Chinese language studies would hamper Beijing’s reach to expand its cultural impact globally. India, for example, has not only a great cache of philosophy, art and books to tap into but also a vibrant entertainment industry.

China-made cultural products have so far failed the competition, with the trendier pop-culture output from Japan and South Korea leaving Chinese leaders with little option but making Chinese language the core of their “soft power” campaign.

The choice of Confucius as the standard bearer of Beijing’s cultural offensive is not accidental either. Communist mandarins see the ancient philosopher who advocated balance and harmony as the ideal speaker for a newly resurgent China keen on projecting an image of a harmonious and peace-loving country.

The non-profit Confucius institutes have become immensely popular not only in places with long traditions of China studies like Europe and the United States but also in Africa. Since the establishment of the first Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi in Kenya in December 2005, more learning centres have been set up throughout the continent and nearly 10,000 African students are now learning Chinese.

The transformation of Confucius into an international brand of Chinese language studies is a sign of the revival of interest into Chinese traditional heritage, according to Qu Delin, professor at Beijing Language and Culture University.

“Confucianism has been a pillar of our traditional culture for centuries,” said Qu. “It is the right choice as an emblem for China’s going out.”

Yet the renaissance of Confucian thoughts is a departure from the political tenets of most of the early 20th century when Chinese intellectuals maligned Confucianism as the conservative dogma of imperial rulers. During the Cultural Revolution, Confucianism was again a target of attacks by Mao Zedong’s red guards who destroyed Confucian temple and vilified the ancient sage as a feudalistic lackey.

Xu Lin of the Hanban sees the role of history in Confucianism’s recent revival. “Chinese people had been suppressed by foreign powers for a few hundred years, and as a result, we were afraid to promote the good things from our culture to foreigners,” she told reporters during a press event on the eve of the 4th Confucius conference in mid-December.

“Now it is about time to offer the best of what we have… So, we want to turn our Confucius Institutes into a kind of culture-super-markets, something like (the international chain store) 7/11 for culture.”

Yet while propagating Confucian maxims of keeping “an open mind” and embracing “everything,” Chinese cultural mandarins have been circumspect about allowing other countries to launch equivalent cultural programmes inside China.

“They (the Chinese) have opened more than 50 Confucius institutes in the United States but we are not allowed to open even a bookstore in China,” complained a U.S. diplomat based in Beijing, who requested anonymity.