Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - The University of Wisconsin-Platteville will be celebrating the grand opening of the Confucius Institute on Saturday, April 12.

The grand opening will begin with a reception at 2:15 p.m. The ceremony will commence at 3 p.m. Both activities will be held in the University's Center for the Arts. Twenty students and a student leader from UWP's partner school in Wuhan, China -South Central University for Nationalities - will participate in the celebration. These students, whose majors range from environmental engineering to Japanese to public management, will be performing different dances that represent the variety of ethnicities in China. The student dance troupe will also be performing at International Night later that evening.

President Li Buhai will lead a delegation of five administrators from SCUN to participate in the grand opening. Deputy Consul General Xie Yunliang from the China Consulate General's Office in Chicago will attend with representatives from the education and commerce sections of the Consulate office.

Chancellor Markee signed the official documents to establish the Confucius Institute in September of 2007 during the Governor's Trade Mission to Japan and China. The Confucius Institute is an initiative of the Chinese Ministry of Education and is administered by the Office of Chinese Language Council International in Beijing.

Dr. David Van Buren serves as dean of the Confucius Institute at UWP and Ms. Marian Maciej-Hiner serves as director. They recently attended the second annual Confucius Institute Conference in Beijing, China. There are 41 Confucius Institutes in the United States and there are Confucius Institutes in nearly 35 countries throughout the world.

"The Confucius Institute project has been designed to help the world understand Chinese language and culture, promote friendly relationships between China and the world, and enhance the development of multiculturalism in order to contribute to the building of a harmonious world," said Barb Daus, special assistant to the chancellor.

The Confucius Institute at UWP will be located in Royce Hall. Two faculty from South Central University will staff the Institute. Professor Wang Xiaojun and Professor He Ganjun will arrive at UWP within the next month and are expected to remain at UW-Platteville for the upcoming year.

The Confucius Institute at UWP will focus on providing information, educational programming and consultative services concerning Chinese language, education, culture, economy, history and society. The Confucius Institute at UWP will develop and deliver Mandarin Chinese language courses for various populations; offer seminars and workshops on Chinese business practices and culture; promote research about contemporary China; coordinate student and scholar travel to China; establish local facilities to hold the HSK examination, a Chinese language proficiency test; train teachers to deliver Chinese language instruction and provide them with Chinese language teaching resources; and implement procedures for the certification of Chinese language teachers.

Anyone interested in learning more about the Confucius Institute at UWP may contact Barb Daus, special assistant to the chancellor, at (608) 342-1282 or daus@uwplatt.edu.

Contact: Barb Daus, special assistant to the chancellor, (608) 342-1282, daus@uwplatt.edu Written by: Nicole Eggebeen, UWP Public Relations, (608) 342-1194, eggebeen@uwplatt.edu