![]() | This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
http://sydney.edu.au/confucius_institute/about/hanban.shtml http://www.hanban.ca/hanban.php?lang=en
The Chinese Language Council International is composed of members from 12 state ministries and commissions, namely,
the General Office of the State Council,
the Ministry of Education,
the Ministry of Finance,
the Overseas Chinese Affaires Office of the State Council,
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
the State Development and Reform Commission,
the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Culture,
the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (China Radio International),
the State Press and Publications Administration,
the State Council Information Office
the State Language Work Committee.
President of the Council is State Councilor Chen Zhili.
Arilang talk 08:03, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
I was wondering if anyone could provide a different source to back up this claim: "Hanban, which is supposedly a non-profit organization but operates CI-related companies for profit. "For instance, in November 2009, Hanban launched a new company, which won the bid for over five million U.S. dollars from the Ministry of Finance to operate the CI’s website; the person in charge of this company is also the deputy director of Hanban."
I've posted a similar discussion topic at talk:Confucius Institute and I'm post here too because the exact same claim is repeated from the same source in this article. I looked at the source and even though its hosted on the george washington University website, the document is not a publication of the university and it clearly states that it is just someones opinion. He makes the claim but gives no context, no evidence, an no source for his claim. If there is a better source for this then I think we need to find it or consider removing the accusation. got any clues? Metal.lunchbox ( talk) 16:11, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
Since an editor has deleted the following information twice, I'm parking it here temporarily and will discuss its relevance later. With the removal of these 11 WP:NPOV references, the current article, with only two refs from Hanban websites, reads like a biased advertisement.
Hanban is most notable for the Confucius Institute program, [1] but it also sponsors the Chinese Bridge competition, which is a competition in Chinese proficiency for non-native speakers. The current President of the Council is State Councilor Chen Zhili (陈至立). On April 2007 while inspecting Hanban, Li Changchun, member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo in charge of ideology and propaganda stated that: "the construction of Confucius Institutes is an important channel to glorify Chinese culture, to help Chinese culture spread to the world...(which is) part of China's foreign propaganda strategy"" [2]
According to the mission statement: "Hanban is committed to developing Chinese language and culture teaching resources and making its services available worldwide, meeting the demands of overseas Chinese learners to the utmost degree, and to contributing to global cultural diversity and harmony." [3] Generally, the Council is charged with cultivating knowledge and interest in the Chinese language and culture in nations around the world that are not native speakers of Chinese.
The following twelve state ministries and commissions are represented in the Chinese Language Council International: [4] [5]
Critics point to the potential for corruption and conflict of interest within the Hanban, which is supposedly a non-profit organization but operates CI-related companies for profit. "For instance, in November 2009, Hanban launched a new company, which won the bid for over five million U.S. dollars from the Ministry of Finance to operate the CI’s website; the person in charge of this company is also the deputy director of Hanban." [6]
The CIs are also criticized for their hiring practices. It was revealed that CI teachers are forbidden to have any in class discussion on or any involvement with topics sensitive to the Chinese regime, such as the Uyghurs, Tibet, Falun Gong, democracy advocates, etc. Canada's McMaster University terminated it's contract with it's CI after Sonia Zhao, former teacher at the University's CI, quit her job, and subsequently appealed to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario for the university's “giving legitimization to discrimination.” Under her job contract with the CI Ms. Zhao was forced to hide her belief in Falun Gong, a spiritual movement persecuted by the Communist party of China. [7]
{{
cite web}}
: Check |url=
value (
help)
About Hanban
was invoked but never defined (see the
help page).Sydney
was invoked but never defined (see the
help page).Keahapana ( talk) 20:37, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
Would be great if someone with more time than me could add something about this interesting incident (refs below), in which Xu Lin, international chief of the Hanban/ Confucius Institute, ordered that four pages be torn out of the main brochure at the July 2014 conference of the European_Association_of_Chinese_Studies at the [University_of_Minho], Braga, Portugal, delaying the release of the brochure and resulting in considerable inconvenience to attendees. The censored pages included a full page by a main conference sponsor, the Taiwanese Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange.
EACS to protest Hanban’s academic meddling: source Letter of protest at interference Report: The deletion of pages Original version of brochure later censored by Hanban representative Sun Lam, one of the conference organizers, is director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Minho (Maybe not for long) Evangeline ( talk) 08:16, 4 August 2014 (UTC)
Perhaps we could trim this section down a little. Isn't it WP:UNDUE to take up half the article about the organization with discussion of one brochure which was temporarily censored at one event? - Metal lunchbox ( talk) 04:15, 14 August 2014 (UTC)
The reasons this seemingly minor issue (to non-Sinologists) is actually not minor are:
1) The Confucius Institute rep in Portugal & the CI authorities she had showed it to agreed the conference program was fine. Yet when Hanban/Confucius Institute head Xu Lin arrived, she ordered it censored to get rid of any mention of Taiwan institutions even though these Taiwan institutions were important conference sponsors, just like the Confucius Institute, and had been for 20 years. In other words, as Hanban/Confucius Institute chief, Xu Lin obviously felt she had the right & duty to censor an international Sinology conference's program to suit Chinese government objectives. She is a top official in the Chinese Communist party. Thus the impact was as if, to take an unlikely example, a top British parliamentary leader ordered censorship of international academic conference materials to suit British politics.
2) The Confucius Institute is not just some minor institute; nor is the EACS a minor organization. It is the major European organization for studying China; hundreds of scholars from dozens of universities were attending to discuss Chinese history, culture etc. in the biggest European conference of this kind. The Confucius Institute is present in more than 100 universities worldwide.
3) This incident made it clear that China feels free to censor any materials it doesn't like, using Confucius Institute money as its rationale, even in international, academic settings.
4) Sinologists around the world have been talking about this incident and once universities are back in session, we will hear more about the EACS/Xu Lin incident. For example, the Japanese Asahi Shimbun wrote about it [2], and yesterday there was this article in the Christian Science Monitor about it. [3] The Inside Higher Ed article is significant because it is published by the major US academic news source, the Chronicle of Higher Education. You will certainly be seeing more articles about this as the Confucius Institutes are trying to expand worldwide on university campuses, and consider they have the right to censor materials they "sponsor." Evangeline ( talk) 19:58, 24 August 2014 (UTC)
Two more articles: [4] [5] Evangeline ( talk) 03:57, 26 August 2014 (UTC)
Obviously, I disagree with the removal. Since Evangeline hasn't edited since contributing the Asahi ref on 24 August, I was suggesting that we show patience, not requesting someone to challenge you. I wouldn't say the edit summary speaks for itself, other than indicating a snit about quoting the word "snit" (which I intentionally chose for its salience). There are many good reasons to remove content, but WP:JUSTDONTLIKEIT isn't one of them. Before I revert the deletion, here's a request. Based upon your skillful 8 September revision of my weasel word in the Shambaugh ref for Criticisms of Confucius Institutes (thanks again), would like to summarize the Asahi reference?
WP:UNDUE says "Neutrality requires that each article or other page in the mainspace fairly represents all significant viewpoints that have been published by reliable sources, in proportion to the prominence of each viewpoint in the published, reliable sources." In regard to Hanban's EACS conference section, all the viewpoints in published RS (to date) are anti-censorship and none is pro-censorship. The only exception is Xu's denial of removing pages, which I'll add. Undue weight cannot justify deleting sources criticizing the Hanban because there aren't equal numbers praising it. Our time could be spent more constructively by finding Chinese sources to counterbalance the foreign criticisms. Presumably, the soft-power propaganda professionals have found a better spin than denying facts. Keahapana ( talk) 20:42, 9 September 2014 (UTC)
Pennsylvania State University also decides not renew ties with Confucius Institute because "several of our goals are not consistent with those of the Office of Chinese Languages Council International, known as the Hanban": * Inside Higher Education: Another Confucius Institute to Close Evangeline ( talk)
More links on same subject (I told you it would get more press once school started!):
Evangeline ( talk) 01:06, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
If the Confucius Institute article can make do with a single sentence devoted to the event then perhaps this page can too, since Hanban's relationship with the events is the same. I've replaced the section with as slightly edited copy of the paragraph from Confucius Institute. It merits some improvement, but I think this is much more appropriate than the previous long list of details and quotes that we are complaining about above. - Metal lunchbox ( talk) 03:26, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Sorry to keep just posting links but the incident seems to have been a turning point in many academics' view of the Confucius Institute. Here's one from German (I guess we can't use it). The Stuttgarter Zeitung title says "Controversial emissaries from Beijing. In the Media University a Confucius Institute is being set up. The university leadership is happy about it. But critics warn of the establishment's close ties to the government of the communist country."
Another link is from the Nouvel Observateur in France: *[ http://rue89.nouvelobs.com/2014/11/04/soft-power-chinois-faut-fermer-les-instituts-confucius-255807 China's soft power: should the Confucius Institutes be closed?] The third sentence in the article says, "A French diplomat in China said to me a few days ago, "The Confucius Institutes are a progaganda tool of the Chinese government." The article refers to "blunders" such as that of "that Chinese [female] Hanban official [i.e. Xu Lin]... who tore out pages concerning a Taiwanese sponsor in the program of the annual convention of the European Association for Chinese Studies." The article, by a French person writing under a pseudonym who has lived in China for 30 years, says that the CIs abroad are actually more important to get Chinese officials themselves to realize that they can't control western universities or discourse, and that opening CIs abroad supports reformers in China.
Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) calls for ban on Confucius Institutes * Universities to keep Confucius Institutes, despite criticism. Dawson College (in Montreal) and two others have renewed ties despite the CAUT's letter. * Dawson College to renew ties The article in the CBC: "The Canadian Association of University Teachers sent letters urging nine universities and colleges across Canada to disassociate themselves from existing deals with China.
"'You have essentially an arm of the state of the Peoples' Republic of China dictating educational content, dictating hiring practices, and then cases like Tibet, Tiananmen Square and Taiwan are off-limits in terms of discussion. I don't think it's an appropriate thing in our institutions,' said the association's executive director, David Robinson"....Executive Director Meng Rong said she believes politics do not have a place in language courses, but there are no institutional rules against discussions.
"Students come here, they want to learn language, they don't want to come here to discuss any political things," she said.
The article says that of the nine universities addressed by the CAUT, only the University of Sherbrooke would be severing ties with the CI. Evangeline ( talk) 00:50, 18 November 2014 (UTC)
The Hanban apparently spent 35,200,000 RMB on the CI website.
Keahapana ( talk) 00:03, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 7 external links on Hanban. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
This message was posted before February 2018.
After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than
regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors
have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the
RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{
source check}}
(last update: 5 June 2024).
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 21:28, 28 October 2017 (UTC)
As of July 16, 2019, I've done extensive work on the article, including copy editing, expanding the lead and body sections, and updating citations.
Here are further improvements that are needed:
Any help in resolving any of these issues would be greatly appreciated. — Bobbychan193 ( talk) 22:24, 16 July 2019 (UTC)
![]() | This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
http://sydney.edu.au/confucius_institute/about/hanban.shtml http://www.hanban.ca/hanban.php?lang=en
The Chinese Language Council International is composed of members from 12 state ministries and commissions, namely,
the General Office of the State Council,
the Ministry of Education,
the Ministry of Finance,
the Overseas Chinese Affaires Office of the State Council,
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
the State Development and Reform Commission,
the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Culture,
the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (China Radio International),
the State Press and Publications Administration,
the State Council Information Office
the State Language Work Committee.
President of the Council is State Councilor Chen Zhili.
Arilang talk 08:03, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
I was wondering if anyone could provide a different source to back up this claim: "Hanban, which is supposedly a non-profit organization but operates CI-related companies for profit. "For instance, in November 2009, Hanban launched a new company, which won the bid for over five million U.S. dollars from the Ministry of Finance to operate the CI’s website; the person in charge of this company is also the deputy director of Hanban."
I've posted a similar discussion topic at talk:Confucius Institute and I'm post here too because the exact same claim is repeated from the same source in this article. I looked at the source and even though its hosted on the george washington University website, the document is not a publication of the university and it clearly states that it is just someones opinion. He makes the claim but gives no context, no evidence, an no source for his claim. If there is a better source for this then I think we need to find it or consider removing the accusation. got any clues? Metal.lunchbox ( talk) 16:11, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
Since an editor has deleted the following information twice, I'm parking it here temporarily and will discuss its relevance later. With the removal of these 11 WP:NPOV references, the current article, with only two refs from Hanban websites, reads like a biased advertisement.
Hanban is most notable for the Confucius Institute program, [1] but it also sponsors the Chinese Bridge competition, which is a competition in Chinese proficiency for non-native speakers. The current President of the Council is State Councilor Chen Zhili (陈至立). On April 2007 while inspecting Hanban, Li Changchun, member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo in charge of ideology and propaganda stated that: "the construction of Confucius Institutes is an important channel to glorify Chinese culture, to help Chinese culture spread to the world...(which is) part of China's foreign propaganda strategy"" [2]
According to the mission statement: "Hanban is committed to developing Chinese language and culture teaching resources and making its services available worldwide, meeting the demands of overseas Chinese learners to the utmost degree, and to contributing to global cultural diversity and harmony." [3] Generally, the Council is charged with cultivating knowledge and interest in the Chinese language and culture in nations around the world that are not native speakers of Chinese.
The following twelve state ministries and commissions are represented in the Chinese Language Council International: [4] [5]
Critics point to the potential for corruption and conflict of interest within the Hanban, which is supposedly a non-profit organization but operates CI-related companies for profit. "For instance, in November 2009, Hanban launched a new company, which won the bid for over five million U.S. dollars from the Ministry of Finance to operate the CI’s website; the person in charge of this company is also the deputy director of Hanban." [6]
The CIs are also criticized for their hiring practices. It was revealed that CI teachers are forbidden to have any in class discussion on or any involvement with topics sensitive to the Chinese regime, such as the Uyghurs, Tibet, Falun Gong, democracy advocates, etc. Canada's McMaster University terminated it's contract with it's CI after Sonia Zhao, former teacher at the University's CI, quit her job, and subsequently appealed to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario for the university's “giving legitimization to discrimination.” Under her job contract with the CI Ms. Zhao was forced to hide her belief in Falun Gong, a spiritual movement persecuted by the Communist party of China. [7]
{{
cite web}}
: Check |url=
value (
help)
About Hanban
was invoked but never defined (see the
help page).Sydney
was invoked but never defined (see the
help page).Keahapana ( talk) 20:37, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
Would be great if someone with more time than me could add something about this interesting incident (refs below), in which Xu Lin, international chief of the Hanban/ Confucius Institute, ordered that four pages be torn out of the main brochure at the July 2014 conference of the European_Association_of_Chinese_Studies at the [University_of_Minho], Braga, Portugal, delaying the release of the brochure and resulting in considerable inconvenience to attendees. The censored pages included a full page by a main conference sponsor, the Taiwanese Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange.
EACS to protest Hanban’s academic meddling: source Letter of protest at interference Report: The deletion of pages Original version of brochure later censored by Hanban representative Sun Lam, one of the conference organizers, is director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Minho (Maybe not for long) Evangeline ( talk) 08:16, 4 August 2014 (UTC)
Perhaps we could trim this section down a little. Isn't it WP:UNDUE to take up half the article about the organization with discussion of one brochure which was temporarily censored at one event? - Metal lunchbox ( talk) 04:15, 14 August 2014 (UTC)
The reasons this seemingly minor issue (to non-Sinologists) is actually not minor are:
1) The Confucius Institute rep in Portugal & the CI authorities she had showed it to agreed the conference program was fine. Yet when Hanban/Confucius Institute head Xu Lin arrived, she ordered it censored to get rid of any mention of Taiwan institutions even though these Taiwan institutions were important conference sponsors, just like the Confucius Institute, and had been for 20 years. In other words, as Hanban/Confucius Institute chief, Xu Lin obviously felt she had the right & duty to censor an international Sinology conference's program to suit Chinese government objectives. She is a top official in the Chinese Communist party. Thus the impact was as if, to take an unlikely example, a top British parliamentary leader ordered censorship of international academic conference materials to suit British politics.
2) The Confucius Institute is not just some minor institute; nor is the EACS a minor organization. It is the major European organization for studying China; hundreds of scholars from dozens of universities were attending to discuss Chinese history, culture etc. in the biggest European conference of this kind. The Confucius Institute is present in more than 100 universities worldwide.
3) This incident made it clear that China feels free to censor any materials it doesn't like, using Confucius Institute money as its rationale, even in international, academic settings.
4) Sinologists around the world have been talking about this incident and once universities are back in session, we will hear more about the EACS/Xu Lin incident. For example, the Japanese Asahi Shimbun wrote about it [2], and yesterday there was this article in the Christian Science Monitor about it. [3] The Inside Higher Ed article is significant because it is published by the major US academic news source, the Chronicle of Higher Education. You will certainly be seeing more articles about this as the Confucius Institutes are trying to expand worldwide on university campuses, and consider they have the right to censor materials they "sponsor." Evangeline ( talk) 19:58, 24 August 2014 (UTC)
Two more articles: [4] [5] Evangeline ( talk) 03:57, 26 August 2014 (UTC)
Obviously, I disagree with the removal. Since Evangeline hasn't edited since contributing the Asahi ref on 24 August, I was suggesting that we show patience, not requesting someone to challenge you. I wouldn't say the edit summary speaks for itself, other than indicating a snit about quoting the word "snit" (which I intentionally chose for its salience). There are many good reasons to remove content, but WP:JUSTDONTLIKEIT isn't one of them. Before I revert the deletion, here's a request. Based upon your skillful 8 September revision of my weasel word in the Shambaugh ref for Criticisms of Confucius Institutes (thanks again), would like to summarize the Asahi reference?
WP:UNDUE says "Neutrality requires that each article or other page in the mainspace fairly represents all significant viewpoints that have been published by reliable sources, in proportion to the prominence of each viewpoint in the published, reliable sources." In regard to Hanban's EACS conference section, all the viewpoints in published RS (to date) are anti-censorship and none is pro-censorship. The only exception is Xu's denial of removing pages, which I'll add. Undue weight cannot justify deleting sources criticizing the Hanban because there aren't equal numbers praising it. Our time could be spent more constructively by finding Chinese sources to counterbalance the foreign criticisms. Presumably, the soft-power propaganda professionals have found a better spin than denying facts. Keahapana ( talk) 20:42, 9 September 2014 (UTC)
Pennsylvania State University also decides not renew ties with Confucius Institute because "several of our goals are not consistent with those of the Office of Chinese Languages Council International, known as the Hanban": * Inside Higher Education: Another Confucius Institute to Close Evangeline ( talk)
More links on same subject (I told you it would get more press once school started!):
Evangeline ( talk) 01:06, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
If the Confucius Institute article can make do with a single sentence devoted to the event then perhaps this page can too, since Hanban's relationship with the events is the same. I've replaced the section with as slightly edited copy of the paragraph from Confucius Institute. It merits some improvement, but I think this is much more appropriate than the previous long list of details and quotes that we are complaining about above. - Metal lunchbox ( talk) 03:26, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Sorry to keep just posting links but the incident seems to have been a turning point in many academics' view of the Confucius Institute. Here's one from German (I guess we can't use it). The Stuttgarter Zeitung title says "Controversial emissaries from Beijing. In the Media University a Confucius Institute is being set up. The university leadership is happy about it. But critics warn of the establishment's close ties to the government of the communist country."
Another link is from the Nouvel Observateur in France: *[ http://rue89.nouvelobs.com/2014/11/04/soft-power-chinois-faut-fermer-les-instituts-confucius-255807 China's soft power: should the Confucius Institutes be closed?] The third sentence in the article says, "A French diplomat in China said to me a few days ago, "The Confucius Institutes are a progaganda tool of the Chinese government." The article refers to "blunders" such as that of "that Chinese [female] Hanban official [i.e. Xu Lin]... who tore out pages concerning a Taiwanese sponsor in the program of the annual convention of the European Association for Chinese Studies." The article, by a French person writing under a pseudonym who has lived in China for 30 years, says that the CIs abroad are actually more important to get Chinese officials themselves to realize that they can't control western universities or discourse, and that opening CIs abroad supports reformers in China.
Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) calls for ban on Confucius Institutes * Universities to keep Confucius Institutes, despite criticism. Dawson College (in Montreal) and two others have renewed ties despite the CAUT's letter. * Dawson College to renew ties The article in the CBC: "The Canadian Association of University Teachers sent letters urging nine universities and colleges across Canada to disassociate themselves from existing deals with China.
"'You have essentially an arm of the state of the Peoples' Republic of China dictating educational content, dictating hiring practices, and then cases like Tibet, Tiananmen Square and Taiwan are off-limits in terms of discussion. I don't think it's an appropriate thing in our institutions,' said the association's executive director, David Robinson"....Executive Director Meng Rong said she believes politics do not have a place in language courses, but there are no institutional rules against discussions.
"Students come here, they want to learn language, they don't want to come here to discuss any political things," she said.
The article says that of the nine universities addressed by the CAUT, only the University of Sherbrooke would be severing ties with the CI. Evangeline ( talk) 00:50, 18 November 2014 (UTC)
The Hanban apparently spent 35,200,000 RMB on the CI website.
Keahapana ( talk) 00:03, 12 October 2014 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 7 external links on Hanban. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
This message was posted before February 2018.
After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than
regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors
have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the
RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{
source check}}
(last update: 5 June 2024).
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 21:28, 28 October 2017 (UTC)
As of July 16, 2019, I've done extensive work on the article, including copy editing, expanding the lead and body sections, and updating citations.
Here are further improvements that are needed:
Any help in resolving any of these issues would be greatly appreciated. — Bobbychan193 ( talk) 22:24, 16 July 2019 (UTC)