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Muslim Communities in China – September 2009

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Prof Fan Ke will present “Negotiating Space and Identity by Muslim communities in China: a case study” on Monday 14th September from 1730-1900 at Abden House.

In recent decades the Muslim minority community of Hui in Quanzhou, a coastal city in Southern Fujian, China, have engaged in projects to help build a Muslim identity. This presentation shows that the local government and the local Hui people have together worked on the same purpose but with different ideas in mind. Through examining Muslim identity construction manifested by architectural representation, among other things, this presentation will unfold the intricacies involved in the process of negotiating space and community identities in China.

Fan Ke received his PhD in anthropology from the University of Washington. He is a Professor teaching anthropology at Nanjing University and the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing Center. He is also the director of Institute of Social Anthropology, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. His research specialises in ethnicity and Muslims in south China. He has just started a new project focusing on citizenship and minority issue in China.

To reserve a place for this talk and the drink reception which follows, please email info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk or call us on 0131 662 2180.

Fudan University Guest Talks – September 2009

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Visiting professors from Fudan University, Chinese partner institution of the Confucius Institute for Scotland, will present two talks on the morning of Friday 11 September.

10.00am-11.00am Professor Liu Xinming
Investigating Chinese Grammar through Teaching Chinese as a Second Language

11.15am-12.15am Professor Tan Zheng
Wang Xiaobo: A Groundbreaker in Contemporary Chinese Writing

Professor Liu Xinming is Vice Director of the Language and Culture section of the Int`l Cultural Exchange School in Fudan University. He is also the academic adviser of Chinese Teaching Centre at Ningxia University. Professor Liu specialises in Chinese grammar and Chinese teaching. His major publications includes `A study on chinese sentence generation` and `Language and language teaching.`

Professor Tan Zheng is Director of Centre for Studies in Foreign Literature in Fudan University. His research interests focus on Aesthetic and Shakespearean studies. He will talk on Wang Xiaobo as a groundbreaking writer and consider his writings which reflect the social changes in the last half of the 20th century in China.

The Confucius Institute is pleased to welcome our partner institution from Shanghai`s Fudan University.

Both talks which will be given in English will be held in the Confucius Institute for Scotland. To reserve a seat please email info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk or call us on 0131 662 2180.

James Legge Weekend, Huntly – September 2009

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Event Date: 26/09/2009

The Grampian town of Huntly will be host to a commerative weekend marking one of its famous sons, James Legge, a noted Scottish sinologist.

`The Legacy of J Legge: China and the West`

is the title of the commerative weekend which includes a diverse range of activities to involve people of the town and visitors.

Events listed below take place on Saturday 26 September with the exhibition element of the programme held in James Legge House open on 26/27 September from 10am-4pm.

2PM PALACE OF PUZZLES
Starting off at 2pm from James Legge House, 9 The Square, Huntly with `The Palace of Puzzles` a special public parade will launch the day`s events.

4PM CHINESE TEA CEREMONY & DISCUSSION
The afternoon moves onto a more thoughtful mood when Professor Natascha Gentz, Director of the Confucius Institute for Scotland chairs a discussion on the impact of James Legge. Entitled The Legacy of Legge: Understanding, Misunderstanding, Belief and Amnesia participants include

Norman Girardo of Lehigh University, Bethlehem USA, author of The Victorian Translation of China: James Legge`s Oriental Pilgrimage will consider The Legacy of James Legge

Gu Zhen Qing, Curator, Li Space, Beijing and Editor, Visual Production Magazine will consider Art in China: now and then

Glen Dudbrige, Emeritus Prof of Chinese, University of Oxford will consider A potted history of Religion in China

Ewan MacDonald, Emeritus Rector of the Gordon Schools, Huntly will reflect on James Legge in Huntly

7.30PM CEILIDH & CHINESE FOOD
Rounding off the day there will be a Ceilidh with Chinese food held at the Gordon Arms Hotel. Tickets are priced at £10 with proceeds going to the Gordon Dancer Beijing appeal.

FURTHER INFO
info@deveron-arts.com; 01466 794494; www.deveron-arts.com; www.jameslegge.org

JAMES LEGGE BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
James Legge was born in Huntly 1815 and was a Missionary + Translator in China from 1837-1873 before being appointed Prof of Sinology, Oxford 1875-1897.

James Legge left his Huntly birthplace in Aberdeenshire as a missionary to the Far East. Believing that he had to understand those he sought to convert, he learned Chinese and began a lifelong study of their language and culture. Later occupying the first chair of Sinology at Oxford, he published numerous monumental volumes of the Chinese Classics – including the Confucius Analects and the Book of Changes or Yijing. This opened channels of exchange that led to a deeper understanding of China and seeded early modern globalisation.

ORGANISERS
The Utopia Group (Deng Dafei and He Hai) from Beijing are in residence with Deveron Arts between July and Sept 2009. During this time they have developed a body of work celebrating Huntly’s famous son – the great Sinolgist and translator James Legge. The work includes a treasure hunt game in the town and an exhibition of paintings and drawings in James Legge’s House of childhood. The climax of the project will lead the towns’ folk on a parade from the house to the river celebrating a fusion of Eastern and Western, Chinese and Scottish culture and the legacy of James Legge.

Video Conference Classes, Moray College, Elgin

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Working with UHI Millenium Institute our first video conferencing Chinese language classes will be piloted this autumn.

A partnership brokered between the Confucius Institute for Scotland and UHI Millenium Institute will enable students from Elgin and Morayshire to learn Chinese through this specially arranged video conferencing course.

Enrolled students will meet their language teacher and fellow students for an introductory session in Moray College on 22 September with classes thereafter running for ten weeks via video conferencing.

This specially designed pilot course provides a practical introduction to Chinese language. The course concentrates on speaking Chinese while introducing the phonetic known as Pinyin. Classes will provide an introduction to the language and give students a basic vocabulary of useful Chinese expressions with limited grammatical insights.

After the introductory meeting classes will run on Tuesday evenings from 28 September to 01 December in Moray College from 5.30-7.30. The cost of the course is £125 inclusive of all learning materials.

To book please download and return the registration form here

Fat China – Lecture – October 2009

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Event Date: 22/10/2007

Taking place appropriately enough at lunchtime on Monday 22 Oct at 13.00 the topic of Fat China; How Expanding Waistlines will Change a Nation` will be explored by Paul French of Access Asia. The venue is G10 in the Adam Ferguson Building, University of Edinburgh, George Square.

Fat China Lecture

Paul French is a founder and the Chief China Representative of Access Asia based in Shanghai, which specializes in providing information on China’s economy and consumer/retail markets. French was the co-author of the 1998 book One Billion Shoppers: Accessing Asia’s Consuming Passions and also the author of North Korea The Paranoid Peninsula – A Modern History (2005) and Carl Crow: A Tough Old China Hand – The Life, Times and Adventures of an American in Shanghai (2006) – a biography of the legendary Shanghai based journalist and ad man from the 1930s.

His next book – Fat China: How Expanding Waistlines Will Change a Nation – will be published in 2008.

International Business Conference – October 2009

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Event Date: 28/10/2009

Sponsored by the Confucius Institute for Scotland, the University of Edinburgh Business School will be hosting a conference on 29-30 October 2009. Organised by Dr Ling Liu and Professor John Henley, the theme of the conference is: ‘The State and the Internationalisation of Business: Is There a China or India Model?’.

The governments of China and India have pursued significantly different economic development paths over the past two decades, yet each has achieved significant economic growth. China is developing an outward-oriented, collectivist growth strategy, whilst India prefers a domestic-oriented, large business in-house driven political economy compatible with mass democracy; yet each has presented an increasing integration with the world economy in terms of international trade and foreign direct investment. Going into the current global financial crisis, both China and India have substantial foreign exchange reserves, yet retain dissimilar economic structures. The conference will seek to explore whether there is a convergence or divergence of the internationalisation paths of China and India and to project the future position of China and India in the world economy.

Musical Silk Road – special concert Abden House – August 2009

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The launch concert for a year long music event `Musical Silk Road` will take place at the Confucius Institute for Scotland head office in Abden House on the evening of Tuesday 11 August.

This musical journey is inspired by the theme of travelling and translocation of cultures. Featuring the music of Kimho Ip on Yangqin, Filipe Davidse on saxophone, and minority ethnic visiting musicians from China, the programme for this opening concert will include the premiere of `Requiem for Travellers` composed by Kimho Ip.

Doors open at 6.45pm and the evening starts at 7.00pm. Concert goers will enjoy a short break with Chinese style canapés and a glass of wine or a soft drink. During the break, guests will also have a chance to enjoy the splendid setting of Abden House and, weather permitting, its gardens.

Tickets will cost £10 per person. To secure a ticket please contact the Confucius Institute or email imapish@yahoo.com

The Confucius Institute is pleased to sponsor this opening concert which has been coordinated by iMAP.

iMAP (www.imapimap.com) is a Scottish based chamber music company. It primarily aims to transcend the limitations of chamber/concert music through multi-artform and multimedia collaborations, community involvement and cultural diversity. It also aims to promote chamber music to new audiences, especially to young people and immigrants, by adopting welcoming, informal and innovative approaches in both the contents and the form of music.

Kimho Ip, the Artistic Director of iMAP Ensemble, works as a composer, cellist and Yangqin performer. His compositions have been performed at the ISCM World New Music Days (2002), music@Edinburgh festival (2003) and the Edinburgh International Festival (2005). Renowned Ensembles, such as the Edinburgh String Quartet, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, have also performed his works.

Four Star Reviews for Midsummer Night`s Dream – August 2009

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An opening night audience of over 500 were in place to see this spectacular interpretation of a Midsummer Night`s Dream. Gaining four stars from the Scotsman, Edinburgh Guide, All the Festivals.com and plaudits on many sides the production fuses music, dancing and martial-arts, fused with computer gaming and Olympic technology resulting in a visually spectacular performance.

To read the four star reviews

Scotman – Four Star Review 

AlltheFestivals.com Four Star Review 

The tale of the four bewitched lovers, the enchanted forest, mischievous Puck and hapless Bottom is much loved around the world.

Our characters blend traditional Chinese dramatic traditions with the world of digital technology enabling a range of bizarre and fantastic dream effects to be realised.

While the words of Shakespeare will be heard Mandarin, mime and music will also be used to convey the emotions and dramatic action of the play. The addition of a digital dimension to the play’s inherent contrasts between illusion and reality, waking and dreaming further highlights the question as to who really controls our fate.

14-23 August 2009 at 7pm (8.20pm)

Tickets £12 (£10)
Preview Evening 14 August £6
Family tickets £35
Matinees on Aug 16, 22, 23 at 2.30pm (3.50pm)

To book call

0131 651 1292

Resource rich website – learning Mandarin

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Listen and learn, look and enjoy via this resource rich website from Hanban, sponsors of the global Confucius Institute network. While nothing can replace the value of direct language lessons a daily visit to www.chinese.cn will give you the chance to absorb more of this fascinating language.

Try the learn some Chinese idioms, master a new character and generally find out more and more about the Mandarin language.

With resources for individual learners, teachers, and students of all ages, add this website to your Favourites and drop in daily! There is always something new to discover.

Historic Date – First HSK Examinations in Scotland

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Sunday May 24 2009 was an historic date. A pioneering group of higher education and workplace students undertook the official Chinese language proficiency test known as HSK.

HSK is the Chinese equivalent of the widely established English language IELTS test

While the numbers taking this first HSK examination are small, student registrations at the Confucius Institute have grown by 130% over the last year. Ranging in age from 14 to 60+ the majority of students are in the 25-45 age bracket. Move than 70% of students are motivated adult learners the majority of whom are working full time.

HSK

The top three reasons for learning Chinese are:

  • Travelling to China for work, holiday or further study
  • Want to develop the language skill to help career
  • Partner is Chinese

HSK

Our pioneer HSK candidates have a place in the history of the Confucius Institute for Scotland and we thank them for their involvement.

Perhaps Love – Scottish Premiere – May 2009

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Multi-award winning `Perhaps Love`(Ai Ru Guo)which has been called the Chinese `Moulin Rouge` features an international cast and crew. Shot by Oscar-winning cinematographer Peter Pau and choreographed by Bollywood`s Farah Khan its international stars include Hong Kong pop star Jacky Cheung, South Korean actor Ji Jin-hee, Taiwanese-Japanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro and Chinese actress Zhou Xun.

It was first released in 2005 and will premiere in Scotland on Friday 22 May at the Edinburgh Filmhouse as part of the Dance:Film Festival between Filmhouse and Dancebase.

The Confucius Institute for Scotland is pleased to support this Scottish Premiere of the first musical film to be produced in mainland China in more than 40 years.

Mandarin, Cantonese and English with English subtitles

Shanghai Insight Evening – May 2009

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Event Date: 21/05/2009

The largest economic and trade centre in China Shanghai is a modern and dynamic city which for many is a shopping paradise. With insights given into the various influences that have shaped the city, this session will also reveal where to shop, where to absorb culture and how to enjoy the local food including the delicious Xiaolong baozi – steamed bun; Dazha xie – hairy crabs; and Chou doufu – smelly tofu!

Our session leader, Wei Zhou, holds a Masters degree in Cultural Studies and has worked as a tour guide in China for a number of years.

Join us for this, the third, of our May Insight Evening on Thursday 21 May from 6pm-8pm here at the Confucius Institute. Please call us on 0131 662 2180 or email info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk. The cost per person is £10.00

Free- Language Evaluation Opportunity

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Event Date: 30/05/2009

If you have been learning Mandarin Chinese and are free on the morning of Saturday 30 May read on. This is the date when we are seeking volunteers to test out the new HSK examination.

The Chinese Proficiency Test HSK (Hanyu shuiping kaoshi, i.e. Chinese proficiency certificate) is the official PRC standardised exam to assess Chinese language proficiency of non-native Chinese speakers.

Hanban,(the Office of Chinese Language Council International) the body which conducts HSK,and which sponsors Confucius Institutes, has been revising the test with the aim of making it more accessible, practical and interesting to candidates. The new test will be offered at 6 levels.

Level 1 only requires that candidates master 150 words and level two only 300 words.

In order to assist Hanban to get feedback on the newly evolved test, we are going to hold exams at Level One and Two on 30th May at the Institute as a FREE trial. Attendees` papers will be formally marked and the results will be released. However, no certificate will be issued as it is only a mock-up exam

HSK is the only official Chinese language certificate accepted in mainland China. It is used by educational institutions and potential employers to:

  • certify that the holder has acquired the required Chinese proficiency to enter Chinese educational institutions as an undergraduate or postgraduate student
  • certify that the holder can be exempt from studying Chinese courses at certain levels
  • ensure suitable level of language skills as a reference point for employers recruiting non-native Chinese staff

The valuable feedback that Hanban will get from the finished exam papers will help them to develop Chinese teaching around the world. Your support and help if you could volunteer to take one of the exams would be very welcome. This also offers a good opportunity to get a sense of the new HSK, which will be implemented soon, should you need to take the exam in the future.

If you are interested in taking part in this free mock exam session please send an email to info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk or call us on 0131 662 2180. More information will follow once you contact us. Many thanks in anticipation!

Warrior City – Xi`an Insight Evening – May 2009

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Famous for its Terracotta Warriors the ancient city of Xi`an is re-inventing itself as a major centre for higher education while maintaining its links with the past. Situated on the threshold of the Midwest of the country, this historical city served as capital to 13 feudal dynasties. Focusing on the long Tang dynastic history and life in the Muslim quarter of this city, Xi’an is a fascinating destination with its own local food and lifestyle.

Join us for this, the second, of our May Insight Evenings. Our session leader, Wei Zhou, who holds a Masters degree in Cultural Studies also lived in Xi`an for over ten years.

To attend this Insight Evening on Thursday 14 May from 6pm-8pm here at the Confucius Institute, please call us on 0131 662 2180 or email info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk. The cost per person is £10.00

Begin with Beijing – Insight Evening – May 2009

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Event Date: 07/05/2009

Come along for two hours on Thurs 7 May at 6pm to join an Insight Evening on Beijing.

Part of a four week programme,but available as standalone session, this first evening will introduce the capital city of the PRC. Of interest to those with general interest in China and for those who plan to visit, this session will touch on history, culture, sightseeing, entertainment and local food as well as contemporary Chinese life.

Led by Wei Zhou, an experienced tour guide with excellent English who holds a Masters degree in Cultural Studies this first Insight Evening is offered at £10. To book please call us on 0131 662 2180 or email info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk.

Scholarships for all – 4 weeks, 1 term, 1 year +

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A number of substantial scholarships to China are on offer from the Confucius Institute Headquarters to enable those studying and/or teaching Chinese as a second language, to have the chance to study Chinese language and culture in China.

With durations from four weeks to full degree, these scholarships should be of interest to schoolkids, working adults, part time and full time students or teachers.

The application procedure, forms and information on participating Chinese institutions are given below. The deadline for receipt of completed applications is Friday 22 May 2009. Please contact us for an initial discussion or if you have any questions.

For general information please download and read through the General Info on Scholarships from Confucius Institute HQ

If you wish to apply for a scholarship please download and complete the forms below which should be returned to the Confucius Institute for Scotland by Friday 22 May latest.

Application Form

Guarantee Statement – under 18s only

Health Form

New Words, New Roads: Chinese literature in the world – April 2009

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Event Date: 28/04/2009

Come and join us for a lecture and panel discussion on Tuesday 28 April. Han Dong 韩东 the Chinese poet and novelist will give the lecture which will be followed by a panel discussion with translators of contemporary Chinese literature

The lecture takes place on Tuesday 28 April 2009 from 5.15 – 6.30 p.m in the Lecture Theatre, Hugh Robson Building, George Square, University of Edinburgh. No booking is required and entry is free.

This lecture is presented by the Scottish Centre for Chinese Studies, in association with Translation Studies (University of Edinburgh Literatures, Languages and Cultures Graduate School).

Additional sponsors are the Confucius Institute for Scotland and Paper Republic

Grateful thanks also to the Arts Council (England) for financial sponsorship.

NEW Course: Chinese Chops – April & May 2009

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Join us for four Saturday afternoons in April and May to discover the ancient art of `seal carving`

Seal-carving is one of the `four arts` which with painting, calligraphy and poetry are the mark of the accomplished scholar.

Over the four Saturday afternoons you will not only learn of the history of calligraphy, painting and seal carving but you will also make your own seal.

Institute Gathering in Edinburgh

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Directors and staff of ten Confucius Institutes from around the UK met in Edinburgh for a full day meeting to discuss operational and development opportunities for CINUK (Confucius Institute Network, UK).

The growth of the Confucius Institute network in the UK is shown by the increased geographical spread and extended reach of the partners. With ten tertiary education based Institutes now in the UK and twenty Confucius Classrooms across the country, demand in this area is one which, against most trends, is expanding. This expansion is mirrored elsewhere in the world with new partnerships being established which will take the number of Institutes to around 300.

By working together CINUK members aim to manage costs, expand the programme of activities and share knowledge and best practice with each other.