About CIHK
BACKGROUND
As its comprehensive national strength continuously increases, China’s influence in international affairs and the importance of the Chinese language become increasingly notable. Learning Chinese has become increasingly popular. While some learn it for their interest in the Chinese language and culture, some see learning Chinese as a tool for business. In order to create conditions conducive to learning and facilitate the learning of Chinese overseas, the Chinese government started collaboration with renowned institutions and professional organisations worldwide through the Office of Chinese Language Council International (HANBAN) and established Confucius Institutes to offer Chinese classes and to promote Chinese culture. Confucius Institute Headquarters is set up in Beijing to centrally manage Confucius Institutes around the world and provide ever-increasing support and services. In 2020, after receiving a great number of calls from Directors of Confucius Institutes and presidents of Sino-foreign cooperative colleges and universities to set up a professional foundation to operate the Confucius Institutes, some educational and cultural enterprises and social organizations, such as Peking University, Fudan University and Beijing Language and Culture University, spontaneously joined hands to establish the Chinese International Education Foundation, taking the responsibility of operating and serving the global Confucius Institutes in more international, professional and popular ways.
Since the establishment of the first Confucius Institute in 2005, the number of Institutes around the world has grown to 519, spreading over 162 countries and regions.
Under the auspices of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and HANBAN, the Confucius Institute of Hong Kong (CIHK) was inaugurated in 2006, dedicated to the promotion of Chinese language and culture as well as the facilitation of cultural exchanges between China and the world. As the first Confucius Institute in China and the only one of its kind in Hong Kong, CIHK addresses Hong Kong’s unique historical background and socio-economic conditions and provides various types of activities and programmes for local residents to broaden and deepen their understanding of Chinese history and traditional culture as well as that of contemporary China.
In 2013 HANBAN and PolyU reached an agreement to restructure CIHK as a unit of the University so that the PolyU community could directly benefit from the Institute’s programmes and activities. Beginning 2014 the Institute is further placed under PolyU’s Faculty of Humanities.
MISSION
To support China’s cultural construction, enhance local education of Chinese language and culture, promote international understanding of Chinese language and culture, and cultivate international scholarship in Chinese studies.
AIMS and VISION
Supporting China’s endeavour to “build friendly relationship with foreign countries and promote multi-cultural development in the world”, the Confucius Institute of Hong Kong aims to help the world better know Chinese culture and understand present-day China by offering people of all nationalities, ethnicities, sexes, ages, and professions opportunities to learn Chinese language, Chinese history, and aspects of Chinese fine culture, and be informed of modern Chinese thinking, custom and social trends.
Addressing Hong Kong’s unique historical background and social conditions, CIHK aims to also act as a source of help to local students and citizens for their better understanding of Chinese history and traditional culture as well as development in contemporary China.
Leveraging Hong Kong’s being a hub of international talents, CIHK aims to link Chinese and foreign academia in the advancement of scholarship and pedagogy in the field of China study and aspires to become an international centre for young scholars of sinology.
