Temple to start Confucius Institute to focus on Chinese language, culture

Temple University is starting a Confucius Institute - the first in Philadelphia - focusing on the teaching of Chinese language and culture, officials announced Monday.

The school will partner with China's Zhejiang Normal University, which will send two Chinese language professors here to teach in the institute, said Temple Provost Hai-Lung Dai.

Each university will contribute in-kind services and personnel worth $150,000 to run the institute, which will start in July, Dai said.

The institute — the 106th in the United States and among hundreds worldwide - will allow Temple to start a Chinese major and offer K-12 teacher certification in the Chinese language, Dai said. Though Temple is one of the region's largest suppliers of teachers, it has lacked that certification — a concern Dai said he has heard from the community.

Temple leaders and a delegation from China are planning to formally announce the partnership at a ceremony this afternoon in Sullivan Hall and at a ribbon-cutting on the third floor of Anderson Hall where the institute will be based.

Confucius Institutes are partially funded by the Chinese government and have been controversial in some academic settings. The American Association of University Professors last summer urged universities not to create them unless they can guarantee academic freedom and "unilateral control" over all academic matters in writing.

"Confucius Institutes function as an arm of the Chinese state and are allowed to ignore academic freedom," wrote the association's committee on academic freedom and tenure. "Their academic activities are under the supervision of Hanban, a Chinese state agency which is chaired by a member of the Politburo and the vice-premier of the People's Republic of China."

Both Pennsylvania State University and the University of Chicago have discontinued the institutes in the last year, and Widener University, which was slated to open one in 2009, never got it off the ground. Penn State in October cited inconsistent goals with the Office of Chinese Languages Council International, known as the Hanban, and the ability and desire to run its own Asian studies department. The University of Chicago ended its institute after faculty complaints and other concerns.

But many universities, including the University of Delaware, Rutgers and the University of Pittsburgh, continue to operate Confucius Institutes.

Dai, who grew up in Taiwan, said both he and Temple President Neil D. Theobald are aware of the controversy and will not allow any censorship. Faculty teaching at the institute will have the same rights and freedoms as all Temple faculty, Dai said.

"I want to make it very clear, both President Theobald and I will uphold the academic freedom of our faculty," Dai said.

The institute has been in the works for several years and was cemented last November when Theobald and Dai visited Beijing to attend the graduation ceremony of Temple's partnership law program there. They met with Xu Lin, director general of Hanban and signed an agreement.

"For our students, for business leaders and for the greater community, an important part of being prepared for today's globalized world is an understanding of China's vibrant language and culture," Theobald said in a statement.

Louis Mangione, an associate professor in Temple's Department of Asian and Middle-Eastern Languages and Studies, has been appointed director of the center. Mangione, a Temple faculty member since 1985, has traveled to China 17 of the last 18 years to teach courses in language education and applied linguistics at Zhejiang Normal University, a 28,000-student school in the city of Jinhua in Zhejiang Province. Elvis Wagner, an associate professor in Temple's College of Education, will be associate director.

Arthur Hochner, president of the faculty union at Temple, said both Mangione and Wagner are well-respected members of the faculty and are comfortable with the project, and that allays any concerns he has.

But, he said, he will watch the development of the institute closely to make sure that academic freedom is upheld.

"We have to see how it goes," he said. "I wouldn't criticize it before it gets started. That would be premature."

He added: "I don't think our provost is going to be hoodwinked by the Chinese government."

In the beginning, courses taught at the institute will be for credit, but there may be non-credit courses in the future, Dai said. Cultural-related events, including programs on Chinese music, theater and culinary practices, also are expected to be held at the institute, he said.