The Power of Tradition – Confucius Institutes and cultural diplomacy in the Visegrád Four countries
- July 2, 2022
- Posted by: rsispostadmin
- Categories: IJRISS, Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue VI, June 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186
The Power of Tradition – Confucius Institutes and cultural diplomacy in the Visegrád Four countries
Viktória Laura Herczegh
PhD student, Corvinus University of Budapest
ABSTRACT: In the past few decades, educational and cultural institutions have become increasingly widespread and popular all over the world. The aim of non-profit public organizations such as Britain‘s British Council, Germany‘s Goethe-Institut, France‘s Alliance Française or Spain‘s Instituto Cervantes is promoting language and culture as well as facilitating teaching and cultural exchanges. Confucius Institute (孔子学院) of the People‘s Republic of China, founded in 2004, is a remarkably fast-growing example for such institutions. As of now, there are more than 700 Confucius Institutes all over six continents. The institutions named after the probably best known Chinese philosopher co-operate with local universities, sharing finances, promoting language courses, training teachers, organizing language exams and contests and hosting cultural and artistic events. The ―trademark name‖ is, unsurprisingly, often associated with China‘s projection of soft power in order to improve the country‘s international image, and, possibly, using diplomatic manipulation. Scrutinized or not, Chinese public diplomacy through Confucius Institutes has been a phenomenal success story so far. China‘s relations with the Visegrad Group countries have lately seen a significant growth within the ties of the so-called 16+1 platform and the One Belt, One Road Initiative, both established in 2013. As Chinese investment approach usually walks hand in hand with soft power projection, it is no different in case of the V4 countries. In this paper I provide a comparative overview of Confucius Institutes in the four Visegrad countries including statistical data, the institutions‘ fields and ways of operation and co-operation as well as the impact of this significant soft power push on the present and future of V4-China relations.
I.INTRODUCTION
The year is 1335. Three European kings, namely Charles I of Hungary, Casimir III of Poland and John I of Bohemia participate in a congress taking place in the beautiful castle town of Visegrád overlooking river Danube. They form an alliance against the Habsburgs and agree to create new commercial routes bypassing Vienna in order to obtain easy and swift access to other markets of Europe (Hornat, 2021, p. 12).
At this time in China, the ruling dynasty is the Mongolian Yuan (1271-1368), with Emperor Huizong (1333-1368, originally Toghon Temür) on the throne. Huizong’s despotic reign can be characterized as disordered from the start, resulting in him being the last Yuan emperor. However, despite the foreign rule, Chinese culture is already versatile and thriving, with special regard to the advancements in science, medicine and printing. (Salát, 2009, pp. 64-66.) It is interesting to note here, that by this time, an explorer from Europe has already been to China: he was Marco Polo, whose travels took place between 1271 and 1295. On the contrary, the East Asian empire has not yet sent anyone to see Europe.
