2011 WKU Confucius Institute Executive Meeting Committee with NCEPU was Held

Publishing time:2011-12-14    Viewer:

        On the afternoon of December 10^th, 2011 WKU Confucius Institute Executive Meeting Committee with NCEPU was held in the main building. President Liu Jizhen, Gray A. Ransdell, President of WKU (Western Kentucky University) and President of WKU Confucius Institute Executive Meeting Committee, Dr. Pan Weiping, Assistant to President of WKU and Director of WKU Confucius Institute, and Xie Kechang, Vice President of WKU Confucius Institute Executive Meeting Committee, attended the conference.

        At the beginning, President Liu expressed warm welcome to the American friends and sincere thanks to Mr. Xie. He noted that it took 6 months for the  two universities to reach agreement in building the Executive Meeting Committee which worth celebration. NCEPU, as an outstanding national key university, responded positively to national summons on international development. In recent years, with more and more people learning the Chinese language, the establishment of Confucius Institutes provided a sound platform for cultural communication. President Liu said that, Western Kentucky University had made great efforts and harvested wonderful results in preparing for Confucius Institute and Chinese language training for long time. In addition, he suggested that cooperation in the future could range from talents cultivation, teachers exchange to scientific research, and hoped Western Kentucky University will become the most important and effective partner of NCEPU.

        President of the WKU Confucius Institute Executive Meeting Committee Gary A. Ransdell felt honored that Western Kentucky University had become a sister university of NCEPU. He singled out that the WKU Confucius Institute had also exchanged ideas in science in addition to mutual study in culture.

        Mr. Pan gave a detailed report in terms of budget, personnel, volunteer teacher plan, community activities and public affairs in 2011 and presented the work plan and budget of WKU Confucius Institute in 2012.

        Subsequently, Vice President Xie Kechang stressed four points in his speech. Firstly, he took the cultural communication as bilateral: while the Chinese tradition was introduced to America, the American culture in Kentucky should also be passed to NCEPU. Secondly, WKU Confucius Institute should feature its own distinct characteristics among the 300 Confucius Institutes all over the world. Thirdly, an in-depth understanding of Chinese culture was necessary, in plain words, the WKU Confucius Institute should help students to understand the essence of the 5000-year Chinese culture. At last, by quoting a famous Chinese common saying, he hoped that WKU Confucius Institute would have a brighter future.

        President Liu Jizhen made the concluding speech finally. He thought that the conference had discussed why and how should we run the WKU Confucius Institute, which not only had a strategic meaning for development of both universities, but also promoted cultural communication between America and China. Characterized of its engineering courses, NCEPU attached great importance to developing in line with international norms and strengthening culture construction, especially communication with external cultures. In addition, President Liu proposed several recent plans, including selecting volunteers to WKU, enhancing communication with Hanban (Confucius Institute Headquarters) for more support, and visiting WKU and its Confucius Institute. Finally, he expressed hope that the two universities could have more comprehensive cooperation in the future.

        After the conference, WKU guests visited the laboratories in NCEPU accompanied by President Liu.