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Confucius Institute of the University of Aberdeen

阿伯丁大学孔子学院

2017 Annual Report

Contents 1 Overview 3

2 Letter from Director and Co-director 5

3 Staff 6

4 Events 9

> Overview of events 9

> Chinese New Year 9

> University of Aberdeen events 11

> Aberdeen International Youth Festival 13

> Mid-Autumn Festival 13

> Traditional Chinese Medicine series 13

> Wuhan People’s Theatre 13

5 Teaching 15

> Locations 15

> School teaching 16

> Adult classes and children’s after-school 16 classes at Institute

> Staff classes 17

> Calligraphy and Tai Chi 17

> Chinese Dance 17

6 Co-operation 19

> North East Scotland and Shetland 19

> Academic 19

> Meeting of Wuhan Confucius Institutes 19 in Paris

> Wuhan Summer programme 19

7 2018 Plans 21

The University’s ConfuciusInstitute has gone fromstrength to strength since itwas first established in 2013,thanks in no small part to theefforts of the dedicated teamthere, who have achieved somuch this year.

I am delighted that Dr Michelle Macleod is currently Director of theConfucius Institute, and I amsure with her fresh approachalong with her special interestin Mandarin (which she hasbeen studying for the pastthree years) she will take the Institute to even greaterheights.

CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN 阿伯丁大学孔子学院

ANNUAL REPORT PAGE 3

2017 Overview 年回顾Our Confucius Institute has been going from strength tostrength since it opened in 2013. We continue to developand grow our teaching and cultural activities here at theUniversity, in the City of Aberdeen and in our hinterland.We now teach over 1750 adults and children each year and more than 800 people attended our Chinese New Yearcelebration here on campus. We are in the happy positionto find that we have outgrown our current premises andlook to expand next year.

Dr William Tuladhar-Douglas stepped down from the post as Director of the Confucius Institute in July 2017. Dr Michelle Macleod is currently Director of the ConfuciusInstitute. Dr Macleod is a Senior Lecturer in Gaelic and Acting Director of Teaching and Learning in the University’sSchool of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture:her teaching and research interests include Gaelic literature,language teaching, community language planning and adult language acquisition. She has previous experience of running a language and culture centre which had bothHigher Education and community outreach programmes.She has been the programme coordinator for the University’s sustained studies in Mandarin as well as Deputy Director of the Confucius Institute since 2015 and thus brings a wealth of experience along with a keen understanding of the Institute to the role.

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Professor John Paterson, Vice-Principal for Internationalisation at the University of Aberdeen



A word from the Director 外方代理院长的话It has been my very great pleasure to take on the role of Director this year. I have beeninvolved with the Confucius Institute, first of all taking Mandarin classes and then as DeputyDirector, since January 2015.

The Confucius Institute of the University of Aberdeen plays an important role in the promotionof Chinese language and culture amongst students, staff, academics, school pupils and thegeneral public in the North East of Scotland. We have engaged with around 5,000 people thisyear, our busiest to date, and have organised activities for all ages and backgrounds in variouslocations, including the Shetland Isles (approximately 360km from Aberdeen).In this report you will find detailed accounts of a selection of our activities and insights from some of the individuals who have benefited from our activity.

The internationalising vision of Hanban and Wuhan University is one which the University ofAberdeen shares: we are proud to be part of a major global network which promotes the bestof Chinese culture and learning and which encourages exchange at all levels. I look forward todeveloping our partnerships as we plan for more activity in Aberdeen in the coming years.

Dr Michelle Macleod

Reflection from the Co-Director 中方院长的话The Confucius Institute has been a really friendly working environment in the past year. These changes will ensure a sustainable development of the CI in years to come.

The current management team understands that to deliver Chinese teaching and culturalevents is the key issue of the CI. Among the many projects we have completed this year, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Wuhan People’s Theatre performances and workshops, ChineseNew Year Celebration, to name just a few, have attracted hundreds of participants and madethe CI’s presence felt by more and more people. Beside planned budget projects, The CI hasbeen involved in a wide range of Aberdeen University’s public engagement events like DoorsOpen Day, Explorathon, May Festival, etc.

The CI culture is democratic, friendly and cooperative. The management meets with Vice Principal of Internationalisation on a regular basis to report developments and seek adviceand support from University senior management level. Plans are fully discussed, and decisionsare collectively made. Management and teachers enjoy a friendly and harmonious relationswith each other.

A future change is that the CI have successfully got a promise of funding from Hanban to refurbish the upstairs of our building. It is expected that next September the CI will have amuch bigger space in which to do an even better work.

Prof Guoqing Zhang

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Staff 员工The Institute currently has 19 staff members in total. There are five management and administrative staff members, three professional teachers and eleven volunteer teachers. The professional teachers and volunteer teachers teach on campus, and in local primary and secondary schools, teaching more than 1,900 students across twelve different sites.

Over the last two years we have doubled the number of staff members at the Institute to meet increasing local demand for our services. Current plans to refurbish and extend the Institute building will mean that there will be enough space for all the Institute staff to work together in the same building.

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Confucius Institute staff with Professor John Paterson



My time in Aberdeen was filled with challenges, self-improvementsand moving moments and it’s so unforgettable that I will surelytreasure these memories forever.Liu Jiuqing, Volunteer teacher 2016 – 2017

University of Aberdeen Staff

Chinese Partner Staff

Name Position FT/PT

Michelle Macleod Director Part time

Ye Gao Deputy Director Maternity leave

Sarah Wang Institute Manager Full time

Jackie Smith Secretary Full time

Guoqing Zhang Co-Director Full time

Yan Chang Professional Teacher Full time

Yan Hui Professional Teacher Full time

Huang Lanyu Professional Teacher Full time

Ge Yishuang Teaching Assistant Full time

Lei Yulu Teaching Assistant Full time

Xie Chengshen Teaching Assistant Full time

Yao Ye Teaching Assistant Full time

Hou Jiaxiu Teaching Assistant Full time

Li Shufang Teaching Assistant Full time

Ling Yu Teaching Assistant Full time

Yuan Yue Teaching Assistant Full time

Luo Shuang Teaching Assistant Full time

Luo Xiao Teaching Assistant Full time

Xu Tiantian Teaching Assistant Full time

Chinese New Year 2017 performance of traditionalwater sleeves dance



Events 活动Overview 概况

The Institute organises regular cultural activities and public engagement activities throughoutthe year. In 2017 almost 5,000 people attended at least one of our events targeted at academics,local community and school children. As these events grow, the Confucius Institute is playinga key role in the University of Aberdeen’s public engagement strategy.

Chinese New Year 春节

Chinese New Year celebrations are the Institute’s biggest events of the year and also thebiggest local celebration of Chinese New Year in Aberdeen city and Shire. A series of eventstake place both on campus and in local schools. Our 2017 Chinese New Year events were attended by more than 2,200 people which is a huge increase from the 1,200 people who attended in 2016.

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Chinese New Year 2017 local Kung Fu lion dance performance Chinese New Year 2017 Peking Opera masks

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1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Event attendance

YEAR

PEOPLE

Explorathon 2017



University of Aberdeen Events 阿伯丁大学活动

Throughout the year the University of Aberdeen takes part in a wide range of public engagement eventsand in 2017 the Confucius Institute participated in more joint public engagement events than ever before.The University of Aberdeen’s biggest festival is May Festival. This year almost 500 people engaged withthe Confucius Institute activities such as taster Mandarin lessons, Chinese tea ceremony and calligraphy as part of May Festival. Proposals for our 2018 contribution are currently with the festival organisers andwe hope to have an even bigger presence in May Festival 2018.

Doors Open Day is a nationwide annual event which organises many buildings to be open to the publicfor a whole day. The University of Aberdeen is the largest organisation to participate in the Doors OpenDaywithin the city of Aberdeen. This year the Confucius Institute joined the programme for the first time.We welcomed more visitors to our small Institute building in a single day than ever before. More than 240people came to the Institute, most of whom were visiting for the first time. One local school teacher wasso impressed with her visit to the Institute she invited our teachers to visit her local school and introduceChinese culture to her classes.

Explorathon is a unique University public engagement event because it takes place on the streets of the city centre of Aberdeen: once again we had the opportunity to share Chinese culture with groups of people who would not usually come to the University.

Explorathon 2017 calligraphy workshops

Aberdeen International YouthFestival 2017 Chinese Danceperformance



Aberdeen International Youth Festival 阿伯丁国际青年节

Aberdeen International Youth Festival is a multi-arts annual event with young people from around theworld performing a wide-range of art-forms. This year our own children’s dance group participated insome of the smaller shows: in the future we plan to bring performers from Wuhan to participate in this international showcase.

Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节

This year we hosted our biggest Mid-Autumn Festivalcelebration to date with over 130 people, including University of Aberdeen staff and students as well as thelocal community coming to the Institute to enjoy Mooncake, Cai Deng Mi and traditional Chinese music.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Traditional Chinese Medicine Series传统中医系列活动

This autumn we hosted a series of lectures and events related to Traditional Chinese Medicine. This seriesincluded workshops from colleagues at the ConfuciusInstitute for TCM at London Southbank University, publiclecture to senior school pupils by Dr Xia Yukun from Zhongnan Hospital, Wuhan University and a talk on the benefits of Tai Chi to mental and physical wellbeing by Prof Cheng Yiping.

Professor Chen Yiping

Wuhan People’s Theatre 武汉人民剧院

Wuhan People’s Theatre came to Scotland in November2017 to tour local primary schools. They gave seven performances of their unique style of Chinese puppetsas well as conducting classroom workshops on puppetrytechniques and styles. The packed schedule includedthe Confucius Classroom in Shetland, an Aberdeenshireschool and 3 other local Aberdeen city schools.Approximately 1,200 school pupils and teachers had theopportunity to see a performance of Wuhan People’stheatre’s unique Chinese puppetry. Wuhan People’s Theatre touring local primary schools.

Chinese New Year GlashieburnPrimary School pupils



Teaching 教学Since opening in 2013 the Institute has continued to grow both the number of students and the number of teaching sites. In 2017 the Institute has taught over 1,750 students including University of Aberdeen staff and students, adults and children in the local community, primary school and secondary school children.

Total student numbers drop slightly from 2016 to 2017 as without enough suitable teaching space itmakes it challenging to maintain the number of classes required for the different levels of students.By refurbishing and extending the building we can ensure we are able to meet the demands and continue to grow the number of classes we offer and increase the number of students attendingclass. The year we complete the refurbishment we estimate we can reach 2,000 students.

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500

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2014 2015 2016 2017

Total students

Locations 教学点

The Institute currently teaches Mandarin Language classes on two University of Aberdeen campus locations and across nine Aberdeen school locations.

Campus teaching

> Old Aberdeen Campus (CI is located on this campus) > Foresterhill Campus (teaching hospital and medical science campus) School teaching

> Oldmachar Academy > Danestone Primary School > St Peter’s Primary School> Glashieburn Primary School> Middleton Park Primary School > Forehill Primary School > Greenbrae Primary School> Seaton Primary School> Woodside Primary School 0

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6

9

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15

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Teaching locations



School Teaching 中小学教学

We work in partnership with the local education authority to deliver Mandarin at nine schools in Aberdeen. We employ, on a part-time basis, Scottish qualified Mandarin school teachers tohelp us develop and deliver a Mandarin programme appropriate tothe different age groups we work with. The Aberdeen schools areunique in Scotland in that they are the only primary schools wholearn Mandarin as a second language whereas elsewhere in Scottishprimaries Mandarin is taught as a third language. In addition to providing Mandarin teaching, we also offer the schools and childrenopportunities to participate in a range of cultural activities.

Adult Classes and Children’s After-School Classes at Institute

成人班级和儿童业余班

Teaching on campus includes 22 different classes for adults and 14different classes for children. This semester we have 19% more adultsregistered for classes on campus compared with the same time lastyear. Most classes are taught here in the Institute, however at busytimes we also use other teaching classrooms available elsewhere oncampus: once we have renovated our building we will be able tooffer all classes on site.

The University of AberdeenConfucius Institute providesDanestone Primary School with our strongest and most effective learning partnership.The team provide excellentsupport, advice and assistancein our efforts to deliver Mandarin learning opportunitiesfor our pupils, staff and families.They provide wonderful culturalexperiences for our school thatmotivate and inspire us all tocontinue to learn Mandarin.

George Roberts, Head Teacher, Danestone Primary School

Wuhan People's Theatre visit Seaton Primary school



Staff teaching 员工课程

One of our aims is to increase Mandarin language capacity amongmembers of staff of the University of Aberdeen. This is our secondyear of supporting Mandarin teaching for University of Aberdeenstaff members. The programme is open to both academic and professional staff members. Currently we have 19 members of staffon the programme, with various levels from beginner through to advanced, of which seven members of staff have now passed HSKlevels 2 or 3.

Calligraphy and Tai Chi 书法和太极

We hold regular classes on campus throughout the year in both Calligraphy and Tai Chi. We also hold Calligraphy and Tai Chidemonstrations at most of our public engagement events such as May Festival.

Chinese Dance 中国舞蹈

In April this year we started Chinese dance classes on campus inpartnership with local dance group RedPhoenix Dance. The childrenperformed at the Aberdeen International Youth Festival this summer.We now have 58 people attending dance classes for both childrenand adults.

I have been learning Mandarinfor three years now at the Confucius Institute, having recently passed HSK 3. Theknowledge I have gained fromstudying at the CI has beendeeply enriching both on a personal level and for my students' experience in theTranslation Masters degree.Being able to speak some Mandarin enhanced my enjoyment of visiting Chinaand has let me make friendswith many Chinese colleaguesaround the world.

Dr Moray Watson, Deputy Head of School of Language, Literature, Film and Visual Culture andSenior Lecturer in Translation Studies

Dr Watson with his Translation Studies class and CI guest Professor Chen Yiping, Jinan University

Matthew Knight, local Tai Chi teacher, with Master Chen

Scotland Language show live



Co-operation 合作Just as our Confucius Institute is the product of a successful relationship between the University of Aberdeen, Hanban and Wuhan University, our CI seeks to establish newand meaningful relationships to develop the impact of our activities.

North East Scotland and Shetland 苏格兰北部和东部以及设特兰The University of Aberdeen is the traditional university for the largest geographical area in Scotland. This year we have increased our activities from outside the local government area in which the University is based (Aberdeen City) into the local government area Aberdeenshire. We have included Aberdeenshire schools, for the first time, in our programme of cultural activities and we plan to increase our activity in this region in 2018 with after-school Mandarin clubs and Chinese New Year events.

The Shetland Islands lie 360km to the north of Aberdeen: it takes twelve hours toreach them by boat, or an hour by plane. Some of the Shetland schools already haveMandarin provision through links with the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools;we support their presence by providing training for their teachers and in November we sent them puppeteers from Wuhan’s Peoples Theatre – perhaps the most unusuallocation for the puppeteers so far.

Academic 学术We have been delighted to host several academic talks this year. Invited Chinese academics have given lectures to the general public and also had the opportunity toengage with academics from their own disciplines. Our CI is a broker for academic discussion and we anticipate that serious dialogue and potentially collaboration between scholars will take place as a result of our ability to host our academic visitors.The topics for our academic talks in 2018 were related to Traditional Chinese Medicineand Translation Studies.

This year, for the first time, our professional teachers have been assisting in deliveringclasses in the University of Aberdeen’s Mandarin programme as the University attemptsto grow its offerings in Mandarin classes.

Meeting of Wuhan Confucius Institutes in Paris 巴黎孔子学院会议In September we were privileged to participate in the 10th anniversary celebrations ofthe CI at Diderot 7, Paris. There we met with French, German and Chinese colleagues alllinked to Wuhan University. We shared information about what each of our institutesdo and considered how we might be better able to work together in the future.

Wuhan Summer programme 武汉珞珈夏令营The Wuhan University Luojia programme is a 4-week language and culture summerschool. Seven University of Aberdeen students, from a wide range of courses includingengineering, law and life sciences, joined the Wuhan programme this year. All thestudents had a wonderful experience noting how not only did participating in thisintensive programme improve their Mandarin skills, they got to experience Chinafirst-hand and enhance their appreciation for global cooperation.

6Wuhan is amazing. The University canteenfood is amazing. Thestudent volunteers andstaff are all first class!What a memorable experience! All of thelectures were invaluabletoo – I gained a lot ofknowledge in the short4 weeks includingsinging, dancing anddrumming sessions.

Sun Fung Choi, Wuhan summer programme student



2018 Plans 年计划

Looking forward we anticipate that 2018 will be a busy and exciting year, not least because we are eagerly waiting for thecompletion of renovations on our building.

The Confucius Institute is currently located in the ground floorof a central building right at the heart of Old Aberdeen: this isa prime location in one of the older buildings on our ancientcampus. The rest of the building, however, is currently not fitfor use and requires upgrading; it is our proposal to extend theConfucius Institute into the two floors above. Doubling thesize of the current Institute would mean becoming fully self-contained and it would significantly increase our presenceon campus and our capacity to teach at peak times.

It is symbolic that our extension marks the fifth anniversary of our opening and we intend to celebrate this milestone with a significant event to which all our local, national and international partners will be invited.

We have plans to significantly increase our public engagementactivity and have a bigger presence at events we currently support in Aberdeen and the north of Scotland. We will bebringing more visitors to our Institute and nurturing our relationships with our current partners to promote Chineseculture and language and enhance the strong links betweenthe University of Aberdeen and China.

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Confucius Institute of the University of Aberdeen17 High StreetAberdeenAB24 3EE

01224 273209

www.abdn.ac.uk/confucius

[email protected]

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