East meets West

Confucius Institute grows understanding between two nations

By Sara Greene

LITTLE ROCK — Imagine a business owner with 1.3 billion potential customers, but being unable to communicate with them.

That problem faces Americans who want to do business in China and likewise, Chinese looking to do business here. Part of the solution for both countries can be found at the University of Central Arkansas' Confucius Institute for Arkansas.

Jim Brosam, director of International Programs at UCA, said the institute is a resource center foranyone who needs help overcoming language and cultural barriers to communicate.

"To put that population in perspective, one out of every five people in the world speak Chinese. Your marketability in the workplace increases exponentially if you are bilingual, but cultural understanding is equally important. The East and West do culture very differently," Brosam said.

During the grand opening of UCA's Confucius Institute for Arkansas, which is temporarily housed in Room 300 of Torreyson West, executive director Dr. Hui Wu talked about some of the institute's projects, such as teaching Mandarin Chinese to Arkansas high school students.

"The beauty of this is these people from the Arkansas Department of Education trust in this program. This is a new frontier that Arkansas can lead the nation in. We met eye to eye, and they had guts to be the first," Wu said.

The UCA Confucius Institute for Arkansas helped form a five-year partnership between Arkansas Department of Education and Office of ChineseLanguage Council International, which is also called Hanban. As part of that partnership, five teachers from China are teaching Mandarin Chinese to more than 300 students in six Arkansas school districts. Brosam said Mandarin Chinese is one of about 50 dialects of the language.

The teachers, Shuo Jasmine Han, Jing Nikkie Liu, Jin Sophia Ma, Jie Min, Shanchun and Susan Wang, all have master's degrees in teaching Mandarin Chinese as a world language. They are teaching at high schools in Greenwood, Waldron, Hot Springs, Harrisburg, Wynne and Cross County. As part of the partnership agreement, the teachers are taking weekend classes to get nontraditional teaching licenses in Arkansas.

"We are one of only two states to provide the nontraditional license training. It takes two years and is rigorous training," Wu said.

Before school started the teachers had to learn about Arkansas by attending regional and cultural training at UCA's Confucius Institute for Arkansas.

Brosam said there are nearly 20 Chinese faculty members at UCA and almost 200 students.

"I can think of no one better to be the executive director of our institute. Having lived in America for so long, Dr. Wu uniquely understands both the West and East," Brosam said.

Wu has been an associate professor of writing at UCA for 12 years. She specializes in college composition, English as a foreign language, cross-cultural communication, comparative rhetoric, Asian literature and Chinese women writers. She has master's from Jiangxi University and a doctorate from Texas Christian University.

"From my personal perspective, the USA should take China seriously. This program will provide mutual benefit and mutual understanding," Wu said.

"Besides, it is hard to fight if you have mutual understanding," Wu said.

Getting the Confucius Institute for Arkansas started was no easy task she said. There was nearly two years worth of applications and traveling between the two countries.

"We needed to find a Chinese partner. The whole process had to go through several levels of approval. In June a team visited UCA to make sure were ready to host a Confucius Institute. It is a selective process. There are only 23 Confucius Institutes nationwide and 200 in 60 countries worldwide," Wu said.

UCA's Confucius Institute for Arkansas found a partner in the East China Normal University, which is located in Shanghai, China. Members of East ChinaNormal University administration serve on UCA's Confucius Institute for Arkansas advisory board and six students from East China Normal University are taking classes in the music department at UCA.

"East China Normal University is equivalent to Johns Hopkins, Yale or Princeton, and we're very lucky to have them as a partner," Wu said.

The institute is also promoting Chinese culture throughout the state with language training, consultation services and cultural performances, such as the Gold Dragon Acrobats, which performed at Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall last week as part of the Confucius Institute's grand-opening festivities.

Wu said the institute collaborated with the UCA History Department during the summer to host a conference to help 165 Arkansas high school teachers put more emphasis on China in social studies curriculum.

In the future, Wu would like to see the Confucius Institute for Arkansas reach out to more schools and businesses.

"I'd like to see Arkansas get more business from the Chinese. Because of the communication issue, you need a person who can explain the mindset of the Chinese and how to push things forward through their bureaucracy. It should be in the logistical part of any company's strategic plan. Plus, there are a lot of cultural issues such as etiquette," Wu said.

Brosam said UCA students travel to China more than any other country.

"We have nursing students who go there and are exposed to acupuncture and herbal medicine and business students who go to Shanghai. It's not just about bringing Chinese students here,but preparing American students going to China," Brosam said.

He said it is important for people to learn what UCA's Confucius Institute for Arkansas is about.

"As people become aware of our institute they'll find out we're not related to philosophy. We are a statewide institute providing a public service. We're officially open, and we're hoping to offer our service and support to anyone, even those traveling to China for pleasure," Bronsam said.

For more information about UCA's Confucius Institute for Arkansas visit www.uca.edu/international/ucaci.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 72, 73 on 10/02/2008