Abstract
The link between teaching Chinese as a foreign language and the role of China on the international stage has grown in importance since 2004 when the Confucius Institutes programme was launched. Despite the confusion that surrounds the categorisation of the relationship, Chinese circles increasingly consider the language institutes as a tool of soft power in “support of the rise of China”. The paper analyses the meaning of “cultural” soft power and attempts to measure its effectiveness in support of China’s foreign policy aims through the study of Confucius Institutes in South Africa. Based on fieldwork data, the paper unpacks the reality on the ground through a study of the process of attraction at the executive level as well as at the students’ level. It concludes that Confucius Institutes, despite attempts by a number of Chinese actors to promote their presence and activities in South Africa, can only be partially effective tools of soft power. Focusing on the modalities, as opposed to the breadth, of the engagement provides a more accurate prediction of long-term outcomes. While the initiative’s aim of exposing people to China, albeit briefly, is efficiently fulfilled, the project’s ultimate aim to support China’s rise is more dependent on the content of the interaction experience than is currently accounted for.
Highlights
Since the late 1990s, the Teaching of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL) has become an important tool of Chinese foreign policy, not merely to “popularise Chinese language and culture throughout the world”, but mostly “to enhance the friendship and mutual understanding as well as the economic and cultural cooperation and exchanges between China and other countries around the world, and to elevate China's influence in the international community” (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China)
From the 1980s onwards the economic development that led millions of Chinese out of poverty, together with the “Go Out” policies created in the late 1990s, made China look less alien in terms of business opportunities and more appealing in cultural terms
The paper first explores the link between teaching Chinese as a foreign language and the role of China on the international stage, including the birth of the Confucius Institutes’ initiative and the foreign policy aims it was associated with
Summary
Since the late 1990s, the Teaching of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL) has become an important tool of Chinese foreign policy, not merely to “popularise Chinese language and culture throughout the world”, but mostly “to enhance the friendship and mutual understanding as well as the economic and cultural cooperation and exchanges between China and other countries around the world, and to elevate China's influence in the international community” (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China). The question that this paper attempts to answer is the extent to which Confucius Institutes are effective tools of China's soft power Ten years after their establishment it is still not clear whether they are fulfilling the initial foreign policy aims they were associated with, namely to spread language and culture overseas, support multiculturalism and a harmonious world and, through this, support China’s rise. The paper first explores the link between teaching Chinese as a foreign language and the role of China on the international stage, including the birth of the Confucius Institutes’ initiative and the foreign policy aims it was associated with It elaborates in more detail on the link between Confucius Institutes and soft power, providing a brief overview of the Chinese understanding of this link and its evolution. While the argument below attempts to downplay the importance of numerical indicators as opposed to a qualitative reading of the phenomenon, the presence of a higher number of CIs was deemed important as a first logical selection to be able to provide a more comprehensive picture
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