孔子学院面临的挑战与应对策略

4. 孔子学院面临的挑战与应对策略

4.1孔子学院发展中面临的问题与挑战

1.“中国威胁论”对孔子学院造成的干扰

“中国威胁论”是一个并不新鲜的论调了，早在1877 年美国参众两院公布的《调查中国移民问题的联合特别委员会报告书》中就宣扬了中国人和其他黄种人的“威胁”。新中国成立后，美国出于意识形态上的考虑不惜一切手段遏制中国的发展，威胁中国的安全。上世纪90 年代，随着东欧剧变和苏联解体，西方某些反华势力又开始把焦点转向中国，中国经济的发展，让美国等西方国家在经济上的不安全感上升至政治上的恐慌，中国国力的提升和军事现代化也自然导致美国等西方国家政治、军事不安全感进一步加深，因此西方国家政界和媒体认为今日崛起的中国比以往任何时候都更具“威胁”。

以美国为首的一些国家大肆渲染“中国威胁论”，各种新版本的“中国威胁论”纷纷出现在西方媒体。诸如“中国能源威胁论”、“中国商品威胁论”、“中国科技威胁论”、“中国军事威胁论”、“中国环境威胁论”以及“中国文化威胁论”等，“中国威胁论”的范围不断扩大，“遏制”中国的论调不绝于耳。孔子学院的成立和迅猛的发展势头，被不少西方媒体解读为“中国文化入侵”的信号，一些机构和团体极力搜寻各种证据，以证明孔子学院是“中国文化威胁”之一。

2007 年5 月28 日，加拿大通讯社发表了由记者吉姆?布朗斯基（Jim Bronskill）采写一篇题为“加拿大安全情报局说：中国以孔子笼络西方人心（CSIS say，Confucius part of Chinese bid to win over western hearts）”的报道，该报道称：5 月底披露的一份加拿大保安情报局的解密报告称，中国在全球设立孔子学院目的就是在全世界笼络民心。该报告认为，孔子学院是中国向外输出意识形态和政策的平台，是向加拿大进行文化渗透的工具、对加拿大人进行“洗脑”的机构。加拿大保安情报局负责人贾德甚至还承认，他们花费了大量精力监控中国方面的活动。报道一经发表，纷纷引起加拿大各大报纸转载。这份报告通篇充斥着对中国和中国文化的敌视态度，中外正常的文化交流活动列作“中国威胁论”的“证据”，把中国扣上了精神输出和文化渗透的帽子。67

由于西方媒体在信息世界中的绝对话语权和广泛的影响力，使“中国文化威胁论”的余波也影响到了很多国家，甚至是不少与中国有着良好关系的发展中国家。例如有些东南亚国家担心孔子学院沿袭过去的华文教育，会弱化年轻学子对所在国的国家认同感，特别是华人族群的国家认同，从而影响国家的稳定。68在深受儒家文化影响的马来西亚，因担心“孔子学院”变“孔教学院”，推动宗教传播，协商在改名为“全球汉语中心”和“孔子汉语学院”后才最终得以设立。

2．官方色彩过于浓厚，容易引起西方社会质疑

孔子学院总部--国家汉办具有中国特色的设立模式，对内行使拟定汉语国际推广的方针政策和发展规划、支持各国各级各类教育机构开展汉语教学等职能时称国家汉办，对外则以孔子学院总部的名义指导和管理海外的孔子学院。国家汉办是教育部的直属事业单位，不管以其事业编制机构的属性，还是由中央政府全额拨款的资金来源途径都清晰地表明这是一个官方机构。而正是由于孔子学院自身浓厚的“官方色彩”和鲜明的“政府行为”，使其在海外尤其是西方国家招致部分人的反感、指责甚至是抵制。

在西方世界中，民众对代议制政府往往存在着一定的不信任心理，对来自“官方”的信息抱有怀疑的态度成为了大众普遍的思维习惯。人称美国宪法之父的詹姆斯·麦迪逊（James Madison）曾说过，如果人人都是天使，政府也就没有存在的必要了。69可以说，资本主义民主社会的特点之一就是民众对政府的不信任。而由于历史背景、意识形态等差异，西方的

民众对来自东方的中国政府更是有着一定程度的偏见，孔子学院的“官方”背景无疑加剧了民众的担忧。

另一方面，孔子学院内部管理的日趋行政化和官职化也在强化着其“官方”的身份。如根据国家汉办2008 年至2010 年的孔子学院中方院长招聘通知中，对中方院长的职称及行政职务要求统一表述为“具有副高以上职称或担任校、系或处级以上职务”。70在2011年的招聘通知中，表述为“具有院（处）级以上工作经历或副高以上职称”。亦即，职称要求和行政职位要求互为选择性关系。而从2012 年开始，国家汉办对孔子学院中方院长的要求进一步提升为“具有副教授及以上职称；担任副处级及以上行政职务至少一年”，71把职称和行政职位作为并列的必要条件。

从选择性条件提高到必要条件，可见汉办对中方院长的行政能力和管理经验更加重视了，但从另一角度也可以解读为把这一职务与“官阶”挂钩，不仅背离了“事业单位去行政化”的改革目标，也招致了外国一些孔子学院的质疑者的非议。从建立一个更加独立、温和的形象出发，孔子学院的“去官方化”和“民间化”应是下一步努力的方向。

3．部分国内高校的急功近利与政绩思维影响孔子学院的有序发展

如前文所述，目前绝大部分的孔子学院采取的是中外高校合作的方式设立和运作，这种模式固然有其天然的优势，如有利于分担孔子学院总部的建设成本和工作压力，能持续提供较高水平的师资力量，能充分调动国内高校的积极性等。但这种模式也容易产生一些难以避免的“副作用”，最突出的就是不少高校把建设孔子学院视为政绩工程，采取了一些急功近利的手段，干扰了孔子学院的正常发展。

2004 年孔子学院项目启动后，寻找合作伙伴申办和建设孔子学院被很多学校纳入了国际交流与合作工作日程，孔子学院甚至逐渐演化为一些学校国际化建设的标志性成绩，成为体现学校领导工作的政绩工程。一些地区的高校在条件还不太成熟的情况下，争相申报建设孔子学院。然而，这种短视的做法很快显露出其不良后果——造成了宏观上孔子学院布局不合理，在部分发达地区布点过于集中；同时，匆忙上马建设的高校由于自身条件的局限，也难以很好地对孔子学院的管理、人才队伍等方面提供有力的支持，以致于一些孔子学院缺乏特色，只能成为单纯的汉语教学场所，生源不足，难以融入当地环境和教育体系，知名度、影响力较小，与社会期盼存在很大差距。

4．师资力量不足

孔子学院成立后，每年总部都向各地派出了相当数量的汉语教师和汉语志愿者作为办学的支持。特别是随着孔子学院数量的快速增加，对专职教师和志愿者的需求也与日俱增。尽管总部派出的教师和志愿者的规模也在不断扩大，但仍然远远不能满足需求，这成为了制约孔子学院发展的瓶颈之一。据统计，马来西亚和印度尼西亚的汉语教师缺口分别都达到了10 万人。73

日本、韩国、泰国、菲律宾、越南，以及不少欧美国家都因为师资不足而导致汉语教学受到了很大限制。为此，孔子学院总部主要采取了两大措施来解决师资力量缺口的问题：一是设立了“汉语国际教育硕士”专业学位，通过培养国内汉语国际教育的专门人才，提高派出的教师和志愿者的数量和专业素养。二是扩大培育外国本土教师规模，设立“外国汉语教师奖学金项目”，招收外国学生来华攻读汉语国际教育专业硕士学位或进修汉语教学课程。据统计，仅2009 年国家汉办及个地方院校在国内外举办短期培训班，培训外国教师 2.3 万人，从117 个国家招收2200多名外国大学生来中国培训汉语，培养本土教师后备人才。各国孔子学院举办汉语教师短训班，规模达 1.2 万多人。74

翻译：

4.Challenges that the Confucius Institute facing and its coping strategies 4.1Issues and challenges during the development of the Confucius Institute

1.Interference of " China threat theory " to the Confucius Institute "China threat theory" is a not a new argument, and as early as 1877, the U.S. Senate and House released Joint Special Committee Report on surveying Chinese immigration in which the Chinese people and other yellow "threat " was preached. After the founding of New China, the United States, tried all means to contain China's development and threaten China's security for ideological reasons. In the 1990s, along with Eastern Europe Revulsion and the collapse of the Soviet Union, some Western anti-Chinese forces began to shift the focus to China. China's economic development let the United States and other Western countries spread their panic from economic security to politics. The promotion of Chinese national strength and military modernization naturally led to the further deepening of United States and other Western countries in the political and military insecurity, so Western politicians and media thought that the rise of China today is more than ever a "threat."

Some countries in the US-led hyped the "China threat theory", and a variety of new versions of the "China threat theory" appeared in the Western media. Such as "Chinese energy threat theory", "Chinese goods threat theory ", "Chinese science and technology threat theory ", "Chinese

military threat theory", "Chinese environment threat theory" and "Chinese culture threat theory " and so on, the scope of "China threat theory" was expanded widely and the argument of "contain" China was constant. The establishment and rapid development momentum of the Confucius Institute, is interpreted as a signal of "Chinese cultural invasion" by a lot of Western media , and a number of institutions and organizations tried to find the evidence to prove that the Confucius Institute is one of the "Chinese cultural threat."

May 28, 2007, the Canadian Press published an article entitled "CSIS say, Confucius part of Chinese bid to win over western hearts" by the reporter Jim Bronskill, which said: a declassified report of the Canadian Security intelligence Service disclosured at the end of May said, the purpose of China to set up Confucius Institute in the global is to win over the people in the world. The report concluded that the Confucius Institute is the platform that China can export ideology and policy , the tool that penetrating culture to Canada, and the organization "brainwashing" the Canadians. The Person in charge of Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Judd, even admitted that they spent a lot of energy monitoring China's activities. Once the report was published , it caused major Canadian newspapers reprinted. The report was full of hostile attitudes towards China and the Chinese culture, and the normal cultural exchange activities between China and foreign countries were classified as the

"evidence" of "China threat theory" . China wan labeled a country of outputting the Chinese spirit and cultural infiltration.67

As the Western media in the information world has the absolute speaking right and extensive influence, the aftermath of the "Chinese culture threat theory " also affected many countries and even many developing countries that have good relations with China. For example, some Southeast Asian countries are worried about the Confucius Institute would carried on the past Chinese Language And Culture Education, which can weaken the young students of the country's national identity, especially the ethnic Chinese national identity, thus it affects the stability of the country. 68 Malaysia influenced by Confucian culture feared of "Confucius Institute" becoming "Confucian" to promote the spread of religion, so the Confucius Institute was set up before eventually it was renamed into "Global Chinese Center" and "Chinese Confucius Institute."

2.The official color is too strong,easily arousing the questioning of the Western society.

Confucius Institute Headquarters—The NOCFL is a established pattern with Chinese characteristics. Internally, it was called the NOCFL ,whose main functions are studying out the international promotion of Chinese policies and development plans, supporting Chinese language teaching in various educational institutions at all levels. Externally, it was called Confucius Institute Headquarters to guide manage all the Confucius

Institute overseas. The NOCFL is the institution directly under the Ministry of Education, regardless of its attribute of career planing institutions, or its capital source (central government supports the full funding), which all clearly show that ti is an official body. Just because of Confucius Institute`s strong "official color" and the distinctive "government action", it incurs aversion blame and even boycott from some people overseas, especially in Western countries.

In the Western world, people tend to distrust the representative government, and it becomes a common habit of thinking for the masses to be skeptical towards the information from the "official". Known as the father of the U.S. Constitution, James Madison has said that if everyone were angels, no government presence will be necessary. 69 We can say that one of the characteristics of capitalist democratic society is people do not trust the government. And because the historical background and ideological differences, people in the West have a certain degree of prejudice towards the Chinese government from the East, and Confucius Institute of "official" background undoubtedly exacerbated fears of the people.

On the other hand, the growing administration-ism and officialism in the internal management of the Confucius Institute reinforces its "official" status. If according to the Chinese Directors` recruitment notice of the NOCFL( 2008-2010), the title of the Chinese Director and administrative

duties for unity described as "having served as associate professors or school, department or division level or above positions." 70 In 2011 recruitment notification, described as "having college (office) level or above work experience or associate professors." That is, the requirements of technical posts and the administrative positions are selective. And starting from 2012, the NOCFL further enhanced the requirements of Chinese Director of the Confucius Institute to "having an associate professor title or above; as deputy division level or above administrative duties for at least a year", 71 so the technical posts and the administrative positions are coordinate necessary conditions.

From selective conditions to necessary conditions, the NOCFL attaches more attention to Chinese Director's administrative capacity and management experience, but at another angle this can also be interpreted as to link this post together with "rank" . It not only deviate the reform objectives of "public institution without administration-ism ", but also incurred criticism from some foreign skeptics towards Confucius Institute. Starting from the establishment of a more independent and moderate image, the Confucius Institute`s "without officialism" and "folk" should be the direction of further efforts.

3. Seeking quick success and instant benefits and thinking achievements of some domestic universities affect the well-organized development of the Confucius Institute.

As mentioned earlier, most of the Confucius Institutes are currently taking a cooperative approach with foreign universities to set up and operate.This model certainly has its natural advantages, for example, it is conducive to sharing the building cost and work pressure of the Confucius Institute Headquarters , can continuously provide a higher level of faculty, and can fully mobilize the enthusiasm of domestic universities and so on. However, this model is also easy to occur some unavoidable "side effects", and the most prominent is that many universities consider establishing Confucius Institutes as performance engineering, so they take some quick success means, which interfere the normal development of the Confucius Institute.

After the Confucius Institute project started in 2004, seeking for partners to bid and establish a Confucius Institute is included in the agenda of international exchange and cooperation by a lot of schools. The Confucius Institute is even gradually evolved as a landmark achievement of some schools` international construction, and vanity projects of school leaders`s work. Colleges and universities in some areas which are not in the mature conditions, compete to declare and construct the Confucius Institute.

However, this short-sighted behavior soon reveals its adverse consequences - resulting that Confucius Institutes`s layout is irrational on a macro level. The distribution is over concentration in some developed

regions; meanwhile, because of the limitations of their own conditions, hastily launched colleges and universities are very difficult to provide good management, personnel and other aspects of strong support for their Confucius Institutes, and even lack of features in some of the Confucius Institutes. As a result, they can only turn to a simple place teaching Chinese language. For lacking of students, they are difficult to integrate into the local environment and education systems, and their visibility and influence is rather small. So a big gap exists considering social expectations.

4.Faculty shortage

After the establishment of the Confucius Institute, the headquarter annually sent to the country a considerable number of Chinese teachers and Chinese volunteers to support for the school.Especially with the rapid increase in the number of the Confucius Institute, the demand for full-time teachers and volunteers is also increasing. Despite the scale of teachers and volunteers are expanding sent by the headquarter, but still can not meet demand, which became one of the bottlenecks in the development of the Confucius Institute. According to statistics, Indonesia, and Malaysia lack Chinese teachers, whose number have reached 10 million individually .73

Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, as well as many European countries` Chinese teaching are greatly restricted because of

lack of teachers.To this end, the Confucius Institute Headquarter has taken two major steps to solve the problem of faculty shortage: First, set up a "Chinese International Education Master" professional degree, through the cultivation of domestic Chinese international education talents to improve the number and professionalism of teachers and volunteers that were dispatched.The second is to expand the scale of local teachers, set up a "Chinese Foreign Teachers Scholarship Program" , and recruit foreign students to pursue a master's degree in international education in Chinese language teaching profession or training courses.据

统计，仅2009 年国家汉办及个地方院校在国内外举办短期培训班，培训外国教师 2.3 万人，从117 个国家招收2200多名外国大学生来中国培训汉语，培养本土教师后备人才。各国孔子学院举办汉语教师短训班，规模达 1.2 万多人。74

According to statistics, in 2009, the NOCFL and some local colleges and universities held short-term training courses at home and abroad, training 2.3 million foreign teachers, in addition, enrolling more than 2,200 foreign college students from 117 countries to China training Chinese to train local reserve teachers. Confucius Institute of various countries held short-term training courses,the scale of that reached more than 12,000 people. 74