‘The Confucius Institute Project’ – consisting of Confucius Institutes and Classrooms, the posting of Chinese language teachers to overseas schools and universities and the Chinese Bridge language competition – represents an attempt by China to extend its influence globally through the use of soft power. Facilitated by a rapidly increasing demand for Chinese language learning, it has established a presence across the globe and made valuable contributions to the learning and teaching of Chinese. However, this has not necessarily led to an increasingly positive view of China, either at a political or a societal level. Through an analysis of official documents, interviews with those involved, a survey of Chinese-language learners and a study of academic and media sources, the author evaluates the aims of the project, and discusses whether these aims are being met.

This book investigates the macroacquisition of Chinese – its large-scale acquisition and adoption for various purposes by individuals, governments and organisations – and the implications of this process for the future of English as a global language. The author contextualises the macroacquisition of Chinese within the global ecology of languages, then analyses the factors responsible for the macroacquisition of Chinese, showing, in contrast to most academic and popular commentary, that a character-based writing system will not stop Chinese from becoming a global language. He then articulates three possible future scenarios: English remaining a dominant global language, English and Chinese both being global languages, and Chinese becoming a global language instead of English. The book concludes by outlining directions for further research on the acquisition and use of Chinese around the world. It will be of interest to students and scholars with an interest in English as a global language, Chinese as a second/foreign language, language education policy, and applied linguistics more generally.

Confucius Institutes, the language and culture programs funded by the Chinese government, have been established in more than 1,500 schools worldwide since their debut in 2004. A centerpiece of China’s soft power policy, they represent an effort to smooth China’s path to superpower status by enhancing its global appeal. Yet Confucius Institutes have given rise to voluble and contentious public debate in host countries, where they have been both welcomed as a source of educational funding and feared as spy outposts, neocolonial incursions, and obstructions to academic freedom. China in the World turns an anthropological lens on this most visible, ubiquitous, and controversial globalization project in an effort to provide fresh insight into China’s shifting place in the world. Author Jennifer Hubbert takes the study of soft power policy into the classroom, offering an anthropological intervention into a subject that has been dominated by the methods and analyses of international relations and political science. She argues that concerns about Confucius Institutes reflect broader debates over globalization and modernity and ultimately about a changing global order. Examining the production of soft power policy in situ allows us to move beyond program intentions to see how Confucius Institutes are actually understood and experienced in day-to-day classroom interactions. By assessing the perspectives of participants and exploring the complex ways in which students, teachers, parents, and program administrators interpret the Confucius Institute curriculum, she highlights significant gaps between China’s soft power policy intentions and the effects of those policies in practice. China in the World brings original, long-term ethnographic research to bear on how representations of and knowledge about China are constructed, consumed, and articulated in encounters between China, the United States, and the Confucius Institute programs themselves. It moves a controversial topic beyond the realm of policy making to examine the mechanisms through which policy is implemented, engaged, and contested by a multitude of stakeholders and actors. It provides new insight into how policy actually works, showing that it takes more than financial wherewithal and official resolve to turn cultural presence into power.

This book explores and analyses Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) pedagogic practices and learning experiences within a cohort of low socio-economic status students within an Australian primary classroom. It demonstrates that, in spite of policy and educational discourses underpinning ‘Asian literacies’, Chinese teaching and learning is a fragile undertaking in Australian schooling. The politicisation of CFL education, especially in the post COVID-19 era, has exacerbated public stereotypes concerning racism and multiculturalism in Australia today. Drawing upon Bernstein’s theorisation and engagement framework, Wen Xu sketches out CFL education as a democratic space where power and control relations can be deliberately operated to reinforce engaging learning experiences. She suggests that pedagogic interventions in the name of social justice have the potential to make consequential differences in disadvantaged students’ life trajectories, and CFL education can be envisioned as an avenue towards socioeconomic mobility instead of being criticised as a platform opposing to liberal ideas. In turn, she provides insights into teaching younger age CFL learners in the global context, in terms of the structuring of pedagogy and curriculum. Wen Xu’s research will be of interest to students and scholars in sociology of education, student engagement, pedagogy and curriculum, CFL education and languages education, as well as pre-service teachers and practitioners who teach Chinese as a Foreign Language.

This book evaluates China's attempts to exert soft power through the Confucius Institutes and other language-related activities. Although these have enhanced Chinese language learning and teaching, they have not necessarily improved China's standing on the global stage. The author examines the reasons for this and its implications.

In a world witnessing the transformative rise of China, the intricate dynamics of its soft power diplomacy have become a focal point of global attention. As geopolitical landscapes shift, the need to understand how China crafts its foreign policy, especially through the strategic use of soft power, becomes imperative. Soft Power and Diplomatic Strategies in Asia and the Middle East is a crucial resource to unraveling these complexities. The book addresses the post-COVID-19 changes in China's soft power application, providing an in-depth, comparative analysis of its diplomatic endeavors in the Middle East and East Asia. By exploring cultural exchanges, economic collaborations, and religious engagements, the book offers nuanced insights into China's strategies, making it an indispensable tool for academics, policymakers, diplomats, and those intrigued by contemporary geopolitics. This book aims to dissect the multifaceted approaches China employs to achieve its diplomatic objectives. From cultural initiatives to economic partnerships and religious engagements, the book unravels the adaptability and complexity of China's foreign policy mechanisms. Its primary objective is to provide a comparative framework for studying China's soft power diplomacy, filling a notable gap in existing scholarship. The interdisciplinary approach ensures rich, diverse analyses, fostering dialogues across international relations, Asian studies, and political science. By offering new theories, methodologies, and empirical data, the book not only challenges existing notions but also sparks further academic inquiry into the strategic use of soft power in foreign policy.

We are delighted to introduce the proceedings of the first edition of the 2019 International Conference on Advances in Education, Humanities, and Language (ICEL). The aim of ICEL (International Conference on Advances in Humanities, Education and Language) is to provide a platform for researchers, professionals, academicians as well as industrial professionals from all over the world to present their research results and development activities in Education, humanities, and Language. The theme of ICEL 2019 was “Mainstreaming the Influences on Higher Order of Thinking Skills in Humanities, Education, and Language in Industrial Revolution 4.0”. The technical program of ICEL 2019 consisted of 77 full papers, including invited papers in oral presentation sessions at the main conference tracks. Aside from the high quality technical paper presentations, the technical program also featured six keynote speeches, Hamamah, Ph.D (Univeritas Brawijaya, Indonesia), Prof. Dr. Nuraihan binti Mat Daud (UIIM, Malaysia), Dr. Edith Dunn (Conservator/Cultural Specialist, USA), Prof. Yoshihiko -Sugimura (university of Mizaki, Japan), Prof. Park Yoonho (Sunchon National University, Korea) and Prof. Su Keh Bow (Soochow University, Taiwan). We strongly believe that ICEL conference provides a good forum for all researchers, developers and practitioners to discuss various advances that are relevant to education, humanities, and language. We also expect that the future ICEL conference will be as successful and stimulating, as indicated by the contributions presented in this volume

An innovative, interdisciplinary perspective on soft power in history, moving beyond the framework of the nation-state Starting in the nineteenth century, as world events became more interconnected than ever, and as public opinion began to weigh on democratic governments, nations employed new communication strategies and propaganda to gain global influence and prestige. Soft power strategies were used by different nation-states, and by supranational and nonstate actors, that wanted to gain influence on the international stage. Soft Power Beyond the Nation takes a distinct approach to the study of soft power in history, moving beyond the framework of the nation-state. The volume editors use "soft power" to refer to the processes through which persuasion, the search for influence and power, and public opinion converge in the international arena. The book is organized on the basis of three central themes: the transnational circulation of knowledge and strategies of public diplomacy across borders, collaboration of intermediary actors of soft power whose interests did not always coincide with those of the state, and the role played by nonnational identities, such as gender and race, in soft power. Soft Power Beyond the Nation enriches the historiographical study of soft power, broadening its temporal and spatial scope and refreshing it with new perspectives on transnationalism, gender, and race. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of history and international relations.

This book explores Chinese soft power and public diplomacy, and the way that it has played out in the context of the US-China relationship. As tensions between the two countries have grown in recent years, Chinese foreign policy has oscillated between confrontation and conciliation. In this work, which integrates all facets of China’s public diplomacy especially towards United States, the author explores the past and future of Chinese soft power, in a text that will interest diplomats, scholars and journalists.

This volume offers comprehensive 'state-of-the-art' overviews of educational policies concerning the teaching of English in a large number of Asian countries. Each contribution is written by a leading expert and gives a clear assessment of current policies and future trends. Starting with a description of the English education policies in the respective countries, the contributors then delve into the 'nuts and bolts' of the English education policies and how they play out in practice in the education system, in schools, in the curriculum, and in teaching. Topics covered include the balance between the acquisition of English and the national language, political, cultural, economic and technical factors that strengthen or weaken the learning of English.