KU News Release

Chinese ambassador to U.S. to visit KU’s Confucius Institute on Wednesday

Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong

LAWRENCE — China’s ambassador to the United States will visit the University of Kansas’ Confucius Institute on Wednesday afternoon at the KU Edwards Campus in Overland Park.

Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong (pronounced JOE WUN-JOHNG), along with Consul General Xu Jinzhong (pronounced SHYU JIN-JOHNG), will tour the institute’s teaching and office facilities at 3 p.m. The ambassador will meet with KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway, the institute’s directors and Chinese culture and language teachers.

“We are honored by the ambassador’s interest in our program and eager to welcome him to campus,” said William Tsutsui, institute director and KU professor of history. “His taking the time to come to visit the institute shows the significance of the institute and KU to the Chinese government.”

This is the second visit by high-ranking Chinese officials to the Edwards Campus this year. China’s vice minister of education Wu Qidi attended the institute’s dedication May 4. Wednesday’s visitors will include several officials from the Chinese Consulate General in Chicago and the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. KU officials planning to attend include Tsutsui; Robert Clark, vice chancellor of Edwards Campus; and Diana Carlin, dean of the Graduate School and International Programs.

KU’s institute, the fourth to open in the United States, offers community, business-based and high school classes in Chinese culture and language taught by two visiting scholars from China, one of whom earned a graduate degree at KU. It is a partnership between KU, the Office of the Chinese Language Council International and Central China Normal University.

The Confucius Institute’s current programs are:

• Community Chinese classes: Six sections of 10-week, noncredit introductory conversational Chinese classes, five at the Edwards Campus and one in Lawrence. One hundred people have enrolled, including business professionals, tourists, adoptive parents and high school students. The Overland Park classes are taught by James Liang; the Lawrence section by Jonathan Yi.

• Corporate partnerships: A 10-week on-site course at the Black & Veatch engineering firm in Overland Park. The course, custom designed for 20 company engineers and staff, provides instruction in the Chinese language and Chinese business etiquette and culture, from gift-giving and toast-making to negotiating styles.

• Interactive distance learning course for Kansas high schools: 42 high school students are taking classes in Mandarin Chinese in seven school districts — Holcomb, Lawrence, Maize, Deerfield, Marysville, Winfield and Auburn-Washburn — via interactive distance learning thanks to a partnership with the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center. Classes originate at KU in Lawrence and are taught by Yi.

• Promoting Chinese language training: Institute staff spearheaded the Kansas Task Force on Chinese Language Training, which has just issued a report with policy recommendations aimed at bringing more Chinese language teachers to Kansas. A Kansas Summit on Strategic Languages, set for Dec. 19 in Topeka, will bring together policymakers, educators and business leaders to set a statewide agenda for increasing the teaching of critical languages such as Chinese in Kansas schools.

• Community and media connections: Institute staff have made numerous presentations to local and national groups since May and consulted with more than a dozen other universities across the United States — and even in Macedonia — seeking advice on the establishment and management of Confucius institutes.

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The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.