Press release: Exceptional range of China-related events

Nr. 230/2017 - 10.11.2017

Academic Confucius Institute supports international conferences, lectures and projects

(pug) In 2017, the Academic Confucius Institute (AKI) at Göttingen University supported three international conferences, three workshops for Chinese teachers and twelve scientific lectures—not to mention its support for translation projects, the development of a database and a research bibliography for the didactics of Chinese as a foreign language. The university runs the AKI in cooperation with its Chinese partner universities, Nanjing University and Beijing Foreign Studies University. At the AKI’s annual directors meeting in Göttingen, the partner universities came to a positive conclusion.

“Our Chinese partners regard the range of China-related events in Göttingen as extraordinary", explained the German director of the AKI, Professor Andreas Guder. "Here, it becomes clear as to what distinguishes an academic Confucius institute from other Confucius institutes." Guder trains future Chinese teachers and his professorship at Göttingen University is the only chair in Germany for specialised Chinese didactics. As the German director of the AKI, he also initiates and supports events on China-related topics in cooperation with colleagues from other departments of the University.

“The support of the AKI helps us to invite high-ranking international experts from the USA, Europe and China to Göttingen and to initiate projects that would not be possible without these resources", said Professor Hiltraud Casper-Hehne, chairwoman of the AKI’s Board of Directors.

In 2014, Göttingen University ceremonially opened the world’s first ever Academic Confucius Institute (AKI). The AKI Göttingen is the only academic Confucius institute in Germany. In addition to concentrating on research in the field of didactics in Chinese as a foreign language, transferring this theory into practice and providing current research findings on modern China from the social sciences, economics and humanities, the AKI Göttingen supports academic exchange between universities and promotes mutual understanding between China and Germany through various academic activities, among others. For more information, go to www.aki-goettingen.de.

Contact:
Professor Andreas Guder
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Department of East Asian Studies
German director of the Academic Confucius Institute Göttingen
Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Phone +49 (0)551 39-21260
Email: andreas.guder@uni-goettingen.de
Internet: www.sinologie-goettingen.de/seminar/person/prof-dr-andreas-guder/