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Confucius Institute.

Newsletter December 2010 I Number 6 I

Inside .....Vice Chancellor attends Joint Conference of European Confucius Institutes

A Word from our Director Page 2

Introducing Our New Management Team Page 2

New Faces at the Sino-English Corner Page 3

China Seminars: Professor Yanjie Bian Page 3

Third Year for SCI at the London Language Show Page 3

More SCI Teachers Attend Training Courses Page 3

Once Upon a Time in China… Page 4 and 5

Discover China in Sheffield! Page 6

Studying Chinese, Living China Page 7

SCI Welcomes the First Cohort of TCFL MA Students Page 8

The Joint Conference of European Confucius Institutes took place between 6 and 8 September 2010 at London South Bank University. The event was attended by His Excellency Ambassador Liu Xiaoming of the Chinese Embassy in London, the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary China Group Mark Hendrick MP, and the General Director of Hanban Madam Xu Lin. University of Sheffield Vice Chancellor Professor Keith Burnett, Chairman of the BLCU University Affairs Committee Professor Wang Lujiang, and SCI’s Chinese Deputy Director Professor Liang Yanmin were among over 200 VIPs and delegates representing higher education institutions, Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms from all over Europe.

During the conference, the delegates have discussed and examined a number of important issues including the development and promotion of Chinese teaching materials, international training for Chinese language teachers, support from Confucius Institutes for schools wishing to establish Confucius Classrooms, and the sustainable development of Confucius Institutes in Europe. Delegates could also visit a teaching materials exhibition organised by Hanban, as well as a photograph display from all European Confucius Institutes.

Several of SCI’s special projects have received much attention and positive feedback, including local teacher training programmes, development of Chinese teaching materials, and the coveted National Quality Framework “Bronze Award” awarded to the Star Mandarin School in February 2010.

Vice Chancellor attends Joint Conference of European Confucius Institutes Professor Liang Yanmin reports on the international meeting in London, attended by the University of Sheffield Vice Chancellor Professor Keith Burnett.

Delegates listen to a presentation at the Conference

Group photograph of all delegates at the Join Conference of European Confucius Institute at LSBU including Professor Keith Burnett, in the second row, sixth from the left (photo: Hanban)

Newsletter 6 I December 2010 I Page 1

EU

CI conference

A word from our Director… I look forward to this special issue of the Sheffield Confucius Institute’s newsletter as it summarizes some of the successful stories colleagues at the Sheffield Confucius Institute have achieved in the past six months. I would like to draw readers’ attention to the fact that this special issue is edited by the Sheffield Confucius Institute’s new management team, which includes Ms Hu Xinqun, Miss Caterina Weber, Dr. Xia Zhao, the current SCI Deputy Director, and myself. The transition to the new management team was officially concluded in the Board Meeting of the Sheffield Confucius Institute held at the Beijing Language and Culture University on 4th September 2010. I am a sociologist by training and do research on ethnicity, social networks, and stratification in China. Dr. Lucy Zhao is a talented linguist specialising in language acquisition and Chinese linguistics. The new management team recognizes and appreciates the excellent work by the former Director of the Sheffield Confucius Institute, Dr. Lili Chen, the former deputy director, Dr. Sarah Dauncey, and former executive board member, Professor Tim Wright, in the past four years. With the support from the senior management at the University of Sheffield, we have developed ambitious plans to move the Sheffield Confucius Institute forward.

Professor Xiaowei Zang

The appointment of the new team was proposed and approved in the third SCI board meeting held at the Beijing University of Culture and Language on 4th September 2010

SCI is an institute jointly funded by the University of Sheffield and the Office of the Chinese Language Council International, more commonly known as Hanban (essentially the Chinese equivalent of the British Council) and jointly run by the University of Sheffield and our two Chinese partner universities, Beijing Language and Culture University and Nanjing University. Its former director Dr. Lili Chen, former deputy director Dr. Sarah Dauncey, and former Head of the School of East Asian Studies Professor Tim Wright made a fundamental contribution to the SCI. The University of Sheffield senior management has valued the SCI’s work very much and decided to ask Professor Xiaowei Zang, current Head of

the School of East Asian Studies, to be the next Director of SCI. Dr. Lucy Xia Zhao was appointed as SCI Deputy Director to run the Institute’s daily operation. This is the first time that a professor and the Head of the School of East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield is appointed to lead the Sheffield Confucius Institute, which demonstrates how much importance the university senior management has attached to the SCI. The new management team will make every effort to advance the work of the SCI, reinforce the collaborative links with the Chinese partner universities, and enhance the Institute’s international profile.

Introducing Our New Management Team

Newsletter 6 I December 2010 I

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New faces at the Sino-English Corner In September, the Sino-English Corner committee for 2010–2011 has started organising another exciting semester full of language exchange meets and cultural activities. Witold Chudy (Chinese Studies final year student at SEAS) and Wu Ting (MA in journalism, University of Sheffield) are the new English-speaking and Chinese-speaking coordinators at SEC. Together with SEC founding member Caterina Weber they now organise the event programme. SEC has welcomed many new Chinese and non-Chinese students at its meetings this semester and continues running its regular Tuesday language exchange sessions. Two very well received special events have already taken place: a joint language exchange social with the University’s Chinese Society, and SEC’s own “A Taste of…” culture exchange session in November, the first of a series planned for later in the year.

China Seminars: Professor Bian Yanjie Bian Yanjie, Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota, has been a guest speaker at SCI in February 2010, and has given two lectures on the increasing importance of guanxi (social connections) in China‘s transitional economy, entitled “The Increasing Significance of Guanxi in Chinese Transitional Economy” and “Information vs. Favoritism: The Network Effect on Wage Income in China”. Professor Bian also led a workshop in which he answered questions from students about research on personal relations in China.

Third Year for SCI at the London Language Show For the third consecutive time, SCI has helped animating Hanban’s stall at the annual London Language Show, the largest event of its kind in the UK. Apart from our popular information stall where teacher Chen Hu calligraphed Chinese names for visitors, we contributed with a graceful traditional peacock dance performed by our Chinese folk dance teacher Luo Wanlin.

More SCI Teachers Attend Training Courses SCI continues to make an effort to enhance teaching quality. Some 120 teachers have taken part in training programmes on local, national and international level in the past months. In cooperation with the School of East Asian Studies, SCI held seven local lectures and seminars this year, covering a wide range of both theoretical and practical aspects of teaching Chinese as a foreign language (TCFL). Speakers included SCI’s Professor Liang Yanmin and Dr Lily Chen, as well as several distinguished guest speakers.

Since April 2010, fifteen of our teachers have attended further training in London and China. In July four teachers attended the annual Overseas Chinese Teachers Training and Development Programme in China organised by Hanban. Eight more teachers attended Hanban’s teaching material training sessions in London in April and October 2010. Finally, three of our staff have just returned from a three-day training at various universities in China, also organised and sponsored by Hanban. “The workshops at East China Normal University in Shanghai were very useful and motivating – the agenda was very tight over the three days, and we’ve had the opportunity to meet teachers of Chinese language from many different countries and share views on teaching materials and methods”, says Geng Xu, a teacher at our Star Mandarin School.

The SEC committee for 2010–11 proudly wearing SEC T-shirts at one of the regular Tuesday evening socials: Caterina Weber, Witold Chudy and Wu Ting.

While SCI calligraphy tutor Chen Hu writes Chinese names for visitors, Caterina Weber provides information on the study of Chinese language at our desk.

Dr Lily Chen discusses with teachers at one of our local training sessions.

Professor Bian Yanjie


New

s in brief

Once Upon a Time in China… Dr Xinqun Hu writes about the launch of a new long-term SCI project for young learners that explores yet another interactive way of bringing China into the classroom.

After several storytelling sessions at the Star Mandarin School, our China in Stories project has reached out to local schools, either in combination with language and culture workshops as part of a China Day, or as an event of its own. Storytelling teams have already been to several Sheffield schools, including Angram Bank Primary, St Patrick’s Primary, and Meynell School. Schools can choose their own programme from our “story menus”, but more often SCI helps selecting stories according to the given timetable and the children’s age. The experience is exciting for the children and for our team alike, says storyteller Chen Xiaohua: “I was attracted by this project because it would give me the chance to share stories that have been in our culture for generations with local children. As a child, I used to be fascinated by them. I’ve now successfully completed a number of storytelling sessions in local schools and all children loved them very much – it’s really a wonderful feeling!” Andrea Coath, a teacher at Meynell School, told us: “the storytellers were very good at working to such a tight timetable and speaking to so many people. The children were left awestruck, listening intently! Thank you for giving us such a wonderful opportunity.”

SCI teachers and storytellers gathered for a photograph with Taffy Thomas after the workshop.

“And who knows what happened next?” Young visitors at SCI’s China Week in September cannot wait to hear more!


Stor

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What better means could there be to introduce a subject to children than telling stories? In the past six months SCI has developed a new project to bring more of China’s culture into local primary and secondary schools, called China in Stories. Through a selective interview process, we have recruited several candidates who were then divided into teams and started preparing a repertoire of Chinese fables, legends and tales.

In June 2010, as part of the project, SCI invited Storytelling Laureate Mr Taffy Thomas to deliver two storytelling sessions for children, followed by a workshop for our own budding team of storytellers. Taffy included several Chinese stories in his repertoire on the day, inviting children to select stories by pointing at images on his unique embroidered Tale Coat. During the practical workshop, Taffy gave valuable advice on how to tell a story in a captivating way, and concluded with a practical part in which all participants had to use newly acquired skills to tell each other stories.

Storytelling Laureate Taffy Thomas fascinates his audience at one of his sessions for SCI in June this year.

With the experience gathered at local schools, we decided to take our storytelling to children and young people citywide. We organised a storytelling event entitled “Chinese Legends and Tales” at Off the Shelf, Sheffield’s annual festival of writing and reading, one of the North’s most innovative, exciting and popular literary festivals. The event was open to the general public.

Nearly 80 children and parents attended the event. They listened attentively to our storytellers, who lead them into the colourful world of Chinese tales. The audience learned how the world was created by the giant Pangu, and how human beings were created by the Goddess Nüwa. They were fascinated by the hero Shen Nong, known as the father of Chinese medicine, who risked his life and tasted hundreds of herbs to find out about their medical properties. Finally, they were intrigued by a fierce fight between a Fire Dragon and a Rain Dragon.

To further inspire the children’s imagination and creativity, we arranged three workshops after the storytelling session. One involved learning to write the Chinese character for “dragon” and the children’s Chinese names on dragon scales, which they stuck onto a giant dragon hanging on the wall. With hundreds of colourful scales, our dragon looked majestic and powerful! Following Goddess Nüwa’s example, the children also made clay models of humans and all sorts of other creatures, while others made paper masks of Shen Nong.

A local storyteller and children’s book author came to the event, and praised the way we delivered the stories and workshops. Children and parents were equally enthusiastic:

CHINA IN STORIES Our Confucius Institute can be contacted to book a storytelling session at your school.

• Sessions usually last between 20 and 40 minutes, depending on the children’s age and the school’s requirements, and can be repeated for half a day or a full day

• Stories and content are adapted to the children’s age

• We are very happy to discuss any special requirements with the school

Please contact us for more information: [email protected] 0114 2228332/8447

Storyteller Chen Xiaohua uses props to animate one of her stories during a session at Meynell School, Sheffield.

“Ben and Matt really enjoyed the whole event, it was very well organised and children found it very attractive and interesting. It’s also a great community event to draw Chinese and other racial groups of people together. Children also learned a lot of China and its history!”, one of the parents said.

One more scale! Children decorate a dragon made by our teachers after listening to a Chinese tale about the Fire Dragon and the Rain Dragon


Storytelling

Discover China in Sheffield!Caterina Weber reports on activities and events during our second annual China Week in September 2010.

Now for the second year running, our Confucius Institute has organised a programme of China-related lectures, taster courses, film screenings and exhibitions at various University venues between 20 and 26 September 2010. China Week has attracted an even wider audience this year, with visitors of all ages coming both from the University of Sheffield as well as the general public. All events were very well received.

During the week, our taiji instructor Dong Zhicheng ran two successful taster sessions of this well-known soft martial art form. Students were really motivated - several even stayed for a while after class to ask questions or practice the newly acquired moves. “Mr Dong is a great teacher,” praised Robert Middlemast, one of the participants who is also a student in SCI’s own weekend taiji classes. Along with the tasters, equally popular film screenings of Confucius and Aftershock took place during China Week, often followed by spontaneous discussions among audience members.

On the Friday of China Week, Professor Jonathan Stock of the Department of Music at the University of Sheffield gave a fascinating talk entitled “Music in Today’s China: Continuity, Transformations, Inventions” in front of an audience of some 40 people. Professor Stock spoke about musical trends and developments in contemporary China, followed with much interest by non-Chinese and Chinese members of the audience alike. The talk ended with a lively question and answer session on the topic. “I think I have quite a good knowledge of Chinese music, but I have learned a lot of new things today!” said one Chinese student upon leaving.

Over the weekend, SCI has organised two afternoons of workshops both for adults and younger visitors at the Jessop West Exhibition Centre. Hour-long Mandarin language and calligraphy tasters ran on both days and enjoyed an attendance between 10–15 participants. Weekend events also featured an exhibition of selected entries in this year’s China in Photographs competition, as well as a wide range of books on China and Mandarin textbooks from our Chinese Language and Resource Centre. Visitors particularly enjoyed the Soundic talking posters, where the learner uses a “talking pen” to hear words and phrases on the posters pronounced in Chinese.

For the younger ones, the Star Mandarin School organised paper cutting, paper folding and kite making workshops. While their parents had a look at the exhibition or a go at Mandarin and calligraphy, children enthusiastically joined the craft workshops and soon many colourful works of art were decorating the walls of the Exhibition Centre. On Saturday afternoon, several Star School teachers lead interactive storytelling sessions, followed by a delighted audience.

Professor Jonathan Stock showing a Chinese guqin to the audience during his lecture

Visitors browse through books and materials displayed at our China Week exhibition.

Stroke by stroke, participants at one of our calligraphy tasters master their first Chinese characters!


Chi

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Studying Chinese, Experiencing China Following a competitive selection process, several students from the Confucius Institute Chinese for Everyone classes successfully applied for one-semester or one-year Confucius Institute scholarships to further their language skills at a Chinese university. Some of them tell us about their experiences.

I took the Beginners I Mandarin course at the Confucius Institute in my spare time while at Sheffield University and I was accepted onto the Confucius Institute scholarship programme to study at Renmin University in Beijing, also known as The People’s University of China. We have 3 hours of lessons every weekday morning and sometimes even at weekends to make up for missed time due to holidays. While in China, we are expected to try to work as hard as a Chinese student. Many foreign students, myself included, are sleeping during the day to cope with the late nights and early mornings, not to mention the sheer workload! The course is moving quickly, I feel like I learnt twice as much in the first 6 weeks in China than during the whole 12-week course in Sheffield.

In China my social group started off with just my room-mate and now I have about 100 names on my Chinese phone including some truly amazing friends. You will never be short of people to eat with in China except that rare occasion when everyone is sleeping or studying. I generally love the food here, but I do have the occasional surreal dining experience. On one particularly memorable evening I ate a donkey meat wrap, squid on a stick, a chicken’s foot, a duck’s head and rice balls with what tasted like haggis inside. To cap the evening off I drank a slightly alcoholic tasting drink with a poached egg and rice floating in it, it was actually worse than the duck’s head but thankfully a lot easier to consume. I usually travel by subway and taxi which are fantastically cheap and for the most part unproblematic.

Sometimes conversations here can be like a mini United Nations where everyone is expected to represent their respective nations, the differences and similarities between individuals and their nations are fascinating. Along with two fellow British students, I represented the United Kingdom all day at the International Cultural Festival. Our stall gave away tea and biscuits, then Newcastle Brown Ale and Speckled Hen, moved onto whisky and then back to tea; needless to say, we were very popular!

Scott Bettinson Beginners I class, February 2010

I came to Chengdu for the research part of my PhD. In order to conduct my research I needed to raise my language level and so I applied for a semester’s CI scholarship at Sichuan University. Halfway through that semester, I can happily say that I have settled into Chengdu life very comfortably. The city is laid-back, the university campus is relatively green and the other language students are all nice and friendly. The only downside to Chengdu that I have discovered thus far is the weather – clouds, fog and pollution combine to make the appearance of the sun a rare and treasured event. Whilst I enjoyed living in Sheffield as well, I am certainly not looking forward to saying goodbye to Chengdu. Thankfully I still have a few more months of hotpot, teahouses and panda souvenirs left!

Thomas Bannister PhD student, School of East Asian Studies

Multicultural China: Scott Bettinson visiting the Ukrainian stand during the International Cultural Festival at Renmin University, where he is currently studying Chinese language.

Thomas Bannister taking a break from his language courses to explore Mount Emei in Sichuan province on a foggy day.


Students in China

Mandarin language courses for adultsSurvival Chinese 5-Day Intensive course for learners with little or no prior knowledge of Mandarin, 24–28 January 2011, 7–9pm, total 10 hours.

Chinese for Everyone evening classes Open at seven levels: Beginners I and II, Upper Beginners, Intermediate I and II, Upper Intermediate and Advanced Situational Mandarin.

2 hours per week at weekday evenings, 7–9pm, during the University semesters.

All levels including New Beginners I class starts from week commencing 7 February 2011.

Please contact: [email protected] for more information.

SCI Welcomes the First Cohort of TCFL MA Students SCI Deputy Director Dr Lucy Zhao reveals details about an exciting new MA programme in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, jointly launched by SCI’s host university in the UK and our two partner universities in China

The three partner universities of SCI – the University of Sheffield, Beijing Language and Culture University and Nanjing University – reached an agreement to set up a joint MA course in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL) in 2009. It is hoped that the joint efforts of the three partner universities will help realise Hanban’s long-term aim of meeting the increasing domestic and international demand for highly qualified TCFL teachers.

After painstaking preparation, the course was launched in 2010, and eight students from Beijing Language and Culture University and Nanjing University started their studies in Sheffield in October. The course is the only one of its kind in the UK at present. “This course is quite unique”, explains lecturer and former SCI Deputy Director Dr Sarah Dauncey. “Not only are students taught by both native and non-native experts in Chinese language and linguistics

with 35 years’ combined experience in teaching Chinese as a foreign language, the diversity of teaching at the University means that students can observe and participate in any type of class from young children to adults, non-specialist to intensive, and can focus on any skill, whether it is reading, writing, speaking, even interpreting.”

By taking lectures in both China and the UK, the students are bound to have a comprehensive understanding of cutting-edge development in theories relevant to TCFL.

The teaching practice scheme provides the students with opportunities of acquiring teaching experience in both China and the UK. They will also benefit from classroom observations from teachers in both countries.


TCFL

The first TCFL MA class with lecturers Dr Lily Chen, Dr Sarah Dauncey and Dr Lucy Zhao

Enquiries to:

Confucius Institute at the University of Sheffield 5 Shearwood Road • Sheffield S10 2TD • United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 114 222 8333 • Fax: +44 (0) 114 222 8334 Email: [email protected]

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