Language learning : politics :: flower : pollen
On a lark, I Googled “people learning Chinese in the U.S.” and found several articles mentioning the Confucius Institutes — Chinese government-sponsored centers found all over the world that are working for the promotion of Chinese language and culture education. I found their website, CI Online, and had a look around. Introduction, promo news, some fun interactive language tools and my favorite, “The Moonlight Girl’s Songs“, a series of children’s music videos featuring a young woman I can only guess to be the Moonlight Girl.
At the start of each video was a short, ten-second opener promoting the Confucius Institute Online. Let me describe it: a brushstroke of watercolor ink; some pandas playing; a sweeping view of the Great Wall, with each brick transforming into dazzling strings of computer keyboard keys which then wrap around the globe and fade to reveal the Confucius Institute’s logo.
It’s a strongly literal opener, a good example of China’s current P.R. style. First, it touches on a few universally celebrated elements of Chinese culture: Chinese brushstroke painting and/or calligraphy, playful pandas in a bamboo forest, and the Great Wall. It then conveys blasting off into a bright future: an incarnation of One World, One Dream. The Confucius Institute’s message visualizes the dissemination of China’s rich culture to the world via the Internet to swelling music.
To my eye, the symbols are puzzling. The Great Wall, albeit a wondrous symbol of masterful Chinese masonry, was built to fortify the country’s defenses against outside invaders. The massive operation that censors the Internet in China has long been called The Great Firewall. With this in the mind of a person raised on ideals of the right to Free Speech and Lady Liberty’s steadfast “Give me your tired, your poor”, the strings of computer keys convey something closer to chains of censorship and cultural monolithism than strengthened ties.
But is that just paranoia talking?
Let’s look at the sponsoring institution. Subsidized in part by a group of governmental departments known as the Chinese Language Council International, or Hanban, and in part by their host universities, the Confucius Institutes are typically run by native-born citizens and operate with independent agendas. According to their umbrella website, services include Chinese language instruction, training and certifying Chinese instructors, administering the HSK Chinese Proficiency Test and conducting language and cultural exchange activities. To date, there are 314 Confucius Institutes in some 81 countries and regions around the world.
In the U.S., Confucius Institutes can be found in dozens of highly respected state and private universities and many play supportive roles to East Asian Studies departments. Some schools like Harvard and University of Pennsylvania have turned down offers to establish a CI on their campuses, citing worries over potential academic interference into research topics sensitive to the Chinese government and cultural differences in teaching style. These questions invariably will arise when educational institutions arrange cross-border cooperations.
“Of course, using the language to create a positive feeling toward China is political. There’s no getting around that,” says Elaine Gilbert, director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Kansas, which hosts a Confucius Institute.
That the presence of politics in this situation is as assumed as the power of learning Chinese to create positive feeling towards China is encouraging to me. Let me explain. Ms. Gilbert is acknowledging that language learning does create some kind of understanding where only ignorance existed before. It’s as assured as it is politically useful. Sure, some teachers and students will promulgate stereotypes along the way, and this can indeed be harmful, but at its core, learning the language illuminates a culture’s social history and shared experiences like many other academic endeavors cannot. I hesitate to say it’s objective in a way that politics cannot touch…but that’s a debate for another post.
Back to the video opener and the presence of politics. I can’t help but cringe when I see China promotion (ok, propaganda) that focuses on repainting a political situation instead of exclaiming the beauty of free conversation with other cultures (which is inherently good P.R.), in this case between language learner and native speaker. Such stumbling, heavy-handed promotion ensures that politics be always near, in effect concentrating the sense of insecurity coming from the Communist government.
Sources
Why China wants you to learn Chinese, Carol Huang, Christian Science Monitor
Who are we, Confucius Institute Online website