The establishment of the Confucius Institute in Brussels was authorized in the first World Chinese Conference in 2nd July, 2005. It was founded and officially inaugurated at the Egmont Palace where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium located in 22nd, September, 2006. The Confucius Institute in Brussels is the very first Confucius Institute to be established in Europe and is co-founded by Beijing Foreign Studies University and the Belgium-China Association. Over the years, with the support of Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and full cooperation of Beijing Foreign Studies University, the leaders from Belgium-China Association and local Chinese teachers made concerted efforts to hold extensive Chinese-teaching or other forms of cultural activities to infuse vitality into the Institute and make new contribution to spreading Chinese teaching and culture.
Since the Confucius Institute in Brussels moved to a new location in 2012, it acquired its own property to run an independent school and the environment for administrative work and teaching was greatly improved, satisfying the demand of teaching staff and students. With an area of nearly 1,000 square meters, the Confucius Institute in Brussels is spacious and bright, including 4 tidy rooms, 2 offices, a large library, an archive office, an audio-visual classroom and a big kitchen specially for demonstration and teaching of Chinese cooking, which offers good material condition for expanding teaching activities and sustainable development.
In the past decade, the Confucius Institute in Brussels has witnessed great development in various aspects and has been looking forward to a more splendid future of distinct characters in the next 10 years. At present, the number of students maintains about 300 and there are 9 full-time and part-time Chinese teachers. Different activities have been held in an ordered way and Confucius Institute has become a symbol of Chinese culture in Belgium. the Confucius Institute in Brussels is located in the center of Europe, therefore, its students not only come from different social classes of the local community but also from the European Union, such as Belgium, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, France and other countries of the European Union.
In order to meet different demands of learning, the Confucius Institute has set up Chinese teaching classes of various types, including children’s class, adult class, advanced study and training class, and trial class of Chinese culture such as Taiji, calligraphy, Chinese cooking and so on. Among them, advanced study and training class is a great feature of Confucius Institute as students in this class conduct quite thorough research or have deep understanding of Chinese culture and they have, for several years, done research in the field of Chinese character, literature, history and social culture, and been to China for many times; under the influence of teaching activities held by the Confucius Institute, China and its culture have become an essential part of these students’ life. They have kept learning Chinese for a long period and become the core of the Confucius Institute.
In order to promote the development of friendship and strengthen the friendly association between Belgium and China, the Confucius Institute has kept helping the Belgium-China Association edit and publish the magazineChina Today(quarterly) in both Dutch and French which gives extensive coverage of Chinese economic and cultural development and social life, introduces courses, teaching characters and latest news of the Confucius Institute in Brussels.China Todaymakes great contribution to promoting non-governmental communication and cooperation between Belgium and China and the development of Confucius Institute. Volunteers of Belgium-China Association are responsible for the carefully-chosen Chinese film show twice a month, as well as some documentary film about China and other communication activities, so that more local people can have a better understanding of the situation and culture of China. Ms. Deng Lina, vice president of Belgium-China Association and chief editor of Dutch version ofChina Today, was awardedContribution Award for Cultural Exchangeissued by the Ministry of Culture of People’s Republic of China in recognition of her great contribution in the cultural communication and spread between Belgium and China for many years. Ms. Deng Lina has taken part in the cultural activities held by Confucius Institute for many times. With high expectations of Confucius Institute, she supports and is concerned about its development.
In recent years, the main regular activities held by the Confucius Institute in Brussels include the Spring Festival gala celebration, graduation ceremony, Confucius Institute Day, the National Day gala celebration and so on. Among them, the Spring Festival gala celebration features the domestic song and dance ensemble which shows music and dance in Chinese elements. The annual graduation ceremony is celebrated with shows and performances designed by students, including recitations of Chinese poetry, Chinese singing performances, Taiji-playing shows, mini drama and so on. These recreational activities are not only gala celebrations but also academic summaries, showing the teaching achievement of Confucius Institute in this year. Other activities cover small-sized reception during the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, as well as distinctive activities in pairs of language communication between students from Brussels and students in Confucius Institute. In addition, Confucius Institute gives a lot of advanced lectures every year. In the beginning of 2014, Beijing Foreign Studies University delegated 3 professors to deliver lectures on tour about Chinese culture in the Confucius Institute in Brussels, which achieved unprecedented success. Apart from lectures given in Confucius Institute, they also made large-scale speeches in European Institute for Asian Studies(EIAS), one of European think tanks, on Chinese politics, economy, religion and other interesting academic speeches.
Apart from Chinese teaching in the main campus, the Confucius Institute in Brussels, in cooperation with Saint Nicholas high school, sets up teaching points under this high school and has obtained good achievement in the years of cooperation. Moreover, Confucius Institute establishes 6 Chinese culture classes in the European School of Brussels IV, providing courses like Chinese-style dancing, Chinese history, geography, tea ceremony, language and characters, etc. In the future, the Confucius Institute will further expand and develop the cooperation with this school.
In the next ten years of development of Confucius Institutes worldwide, we will continue to make great efforts to expand the work of Chinese teaching, promote all-round development of teaching points and cultural activities, focus on the problem of stagnation of enrolled students in the Confucius Institute and a relative lack of large-scale cultural activities. To achieve goals and solve problems, the Confucius Institute will promote Chinese culture in Chinese traditional festivals, such as the Spring Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Double Ninth Festival and so on, and hold large-scale cultural campaign on Confucius Institute Day. In addition, it will also fully carry forward and implementConfucius China Studies Program (CCSP), make best use of its advantage of location where European Union is headquartered to strengthen the influence of the Confucius Institute and seek more extensive cooperation so that more Europeans will be interested in Chinese and Chinese culture and have a better understanding of China so as to achieve the purpose of learning from each other.
Address: Confucius Institute & Belgium-China Association, Paul Deschenellaan 92 1030 Brussels Belgium
Contact: Wim De Groeve, Belgian Director; Zhang Sirui, Chinese Director
E-mail：sec@belchin.be
Tel.:0032-2-217-1062
Fax: 0032-2-502-7715
(As of December 31th, 2014)
