论文总字数：33218字

摘 要

2004年11月第一家孔子学院在开设至今已有10多年了，截止到2014年底，全球已开设475所孔子学院。尽管孔子学院发展如火如荼，但近期孔子学院遭到了不同程度的抵制甚至出现停办。孔子学院的发展关系到我国的文化软实力，其重要性不言而喻。

基督教起源于公元1世纪的巴勒斯坦，之后在全世界范围内广泛传播，在全球已有20亿多的信徒，中国的基督教信徒人数在2300万至4000万之间。其在传播中也遭遇了种种困境甚至抵制，但其信徒的队伍一直在壮大，也越来越被更多的人了解和接受。

本文认为基督教发展壮大的历程和面对困境的方案可以在文化适应、机构设置和人才培养等方面可以给孔子学院所借鉴。

关键词： 孔子学院；基督教；传播

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. Dissemination Strategies of Christianity in China 3

3.1Cultural Adaptation 3

3.2Christian’s Institutional Settings 4

3.3Talent Development 6

4. The Implication for the Establishment of Confucius Institute Overseas 8

4.1Catering to Local Needs 8

4.2 Improving the Establishment of Confucius Institute 9

4.3Developing Competent Teachers 12

5. Conclusion 13

Works Cited 15

1. Introduction

On 20 December 2014, Stockholm University, Sweden, announced that the Stockholm Confucius Institute would be closed by the end of June 2015. According to the vice-chancellor of Stockholm University the new contracts for the Confucius Institutes are not in line with how Swedish universities are governed. Stockholm University’s CI closure is not the only one. It is the third Confucius Institute which would be shut down in 2014 alone, after University of Chicago and Pennsylvania State University announcing that they would discontinue hosting Confucius Institutes.

Before 2014, there were also some closures. In March 2010, Japan"s Osaka Sangyo University closed Confucius Institute after one year of operation. On 7 February 2013, Canada"s McMaster University terminated its CI contract. On 24 September 2013, France"s University of Lyon closed their Confucius Institute at Lumière University Lyon 2 and Jean Moulin University Lyon 3, which had been established in 2009. On 31 December 2013, Canada"s Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec closed their Confucius Institute after months of failed negotiations. In addition, during its initial stages, the programme encountered resistance. In 2009, 174 professors in Chicago University opposed to set up Confucius Institute. Compared to the total number of CIs, the closed CIs occupy a very small proportion. But the problem should be paid attention to.

These events suggest that the mode of Confucius Institute is far from success and Chinese culture is not readily acceptable to others. Some university claimed that the CI was “a spy agency established to gather cultural intelligence”. Some said that the Hanban arrangement no longer met the university’s international plans. Others issued the human rights complaint. However, the development of Confucius Institute is related to the spreading of Chinese culture abroad, and further impacts on China’s soft power. Chinese government pays much attention on it. According to The Economist,“ through the Hanban, a government entity, China provides the centres with paid-for instructors and sponsors cultural events at them. It’s spending is considerable, and growing rapidly. In 2013 it was $278m, more than six times as much as in 2006. China’s funding for Confucius Institutes amounts to about $100000-200000 a year on many campuses, and sometimes more.”

Christianity’s dissemination in China is certainly successful. Christianity has its origin in Palestine in 1st century AD. Afterwards, it spreads all over the world. There are more than 2 billion believers in the world, and more than 30million registered in mainland China. During its spread around the world, some resistance occurred too. However, the team of believers grows constantly, and more and more people learn Christianity and accept it. This paper reviews the lessons of Christianity’s spreading in China, and offers out some suggestions to Confucius Institute.

2. Literature Review

There are a lot of Confucius Institute studies. The studies are usually divided in two aspects, either studying the mode of Confucius Institute, or comparing it with other language promotion agencies to learn some lessons. Wang Zhanpeng and Hao Li (2014) use the example of Ireland Confucius Institute to conclude the function of CI. Wu Gang and Li Jin (2014) compare Goethe-Institut and Confucius Institute and makes useful recommendations. But few of CI studies make a thorough inquiry of CI’s closure.

Christianity in China has a history going back to the 7th century during the Tang dynasty. Today, it comprises Catholics, Protestants, and a small number of Orthodox Christians. Although its lineage in China is not as ancient as the institutional religions of Taoism, Mahayana Buddhism and Confucianism, Christianity has existed in China since at least 7th century and has gained influence over the past 200 years.

In recent years, the number of Chinese Christians has increased significantly, particularly since the easing of restrictions on religious activity during economic reforms in the late 1970s; Christians were 4 million before 1949, and are in the tens of millions today. Various statistical analyses have found that between 2% and 4% of the Chinese identify as Christian.

No matter what problems that Christianity have faced in the process of dissemination in China, the differences between different cultures or the strategies that they have used are ubiquitous when two different cultures collide, because there is a similarity between the establishment of Confucius Institute abroad and the spread of Christianity in China. The aims of these two activities are to spread culture in foreign areas. Heterogeneous culture is relative to the homogeneous culture and local culture. Local culture is a cultural pattern that has succeeded for generations in a nation, a country and an area. There is a significant difference between the nature of local culture and that of heterogeneous culture, for the latter culture is full of obvious region characteristics.

Therefore, through reviewing and analyzing the dissemination of Christianity in China, this paper provides implications for the establishment of Confucius Institute and the dissemination of Chinese culture at overseas.

3. Dissemination Strategies of Christianity in China

The dissemination strategies of Christian in China are many and various; I will analyze its strategy mainly in three significant aspects, its cultural adaptation, institutional settings and talent development.

3.1Cultural Adaptation

According to the long-term spreading practice overseas, missionaries learned the particularity of variety of cultures and the differences between different customs. So they paid much attention to suitability and flexibility of the ways of preaching.

3.1.1Interpretation of Christianity with Confucian Philosophy

In order to adapt to the local culture, the missionaries not only wore scholars’ silk gowns, shaved beard and took the palanquins, but also realized the problem was how to blend Christianity with Chinese culture. Matteo Ricci studied China’s traditional Confucian classics and interpreted Christianity with them. For example, he compared the Confucian view of God with the Christian concept of God, and used ‘Tian’ or ‘Shangdi’ in Confucian classics to refer to God.

3.1.2Spreading Western Science and Technology

Society of Jesus entered into China in late Ming and early Qing Dynasty when the Qing government carried out maritime prohibition and excluded foreign culture. So, it was unpractical to spread “Gospel” directly in China. It not only wouldn’t appeal to the interests of Chinese people, but arouse their rejection.

Having realized this problem, the Society of Jesus decided to spread its thoughts indirectly. They wanted to arouse Chinese interests in western science and technology at first. Then, they started to transmit Christian doctrines. The missionaries in China found that Chinese had more interests in western science than that in western religion. For this reason, Matteo Ricci and his disciples brought in advanced western knowledge in astronomy, mathematics, physics and other fields. When they communicated with Chinese officers, gentries and scholars, they tended to introduce western natural science and knowledge first. The next was to preach. Based on that preaching method, they developed 80 Catholics in Zhaoqing city. As one of the most typical representatives, Xu Guangqi was strongly interested in the mathematics taught by Matteo Ricci. He thought it of great practical value. After having a deeper contact with Matteo Ricci, he not only had a further understanding of western science and technology that made great contribution to modern science and technology of China, but also accepted the doctrines of Christianity and become a Catholic.

The advanced western scientific products, also called “western novelties”, such as armillary sphere, automatic-striking clock, triangular prism, etc, were important preaching instruments for missionaries in China. The upper class in China was extremely attracted by those novelties, especially the automatic-striking clock that was adored by Emperor Wanli very much. To ensure that troubles(if it happens) of clock could be repaired as soon as possible, Emperor Wanli declared that Matteo Ricci had right to stay in Beijing and were free to move in and out of the imperial palace, which did a great favor to his preaching activities. Gradually, Emperor Wanli started to pay attention to Matteo Ricci and Christianity.

3.2Christian’s Institutional Settings

At first, the only Christian’s institutional setting in China is the church. Traditional preaching is mainly about public speaking, sermons, distributing religious publications. Because of the huge difference between Christianity and Chinese local culture and their ingrained ideas formed during a long term, the ways which worked in Western countries didn’t succeed in China during and after the Opium War. The missionaries at that time were aware of the slow progress of pure missionary, so they hoped to promote the spread of Christianity in China by other means. In order to preach better, besides establishing churches as traditional spread institute, they opened missionary schools, missionary hospitals and publishers, which made up a huge platform for spreading Christianity.

3.2.1The Missionary Schools

The missionary schools started in 19^th century when British pastor Robert Morrison had to establish the first missionary school in Melaka called Ying Wa College because Qing government’s seclusion policy that banned the missionary entering China to spread Christianity. After that, the Christian opened a large number of missionary schools gradually.

3.2.2The Missionary Hospitals

In 1835, a missionary, Peter Parker, from American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) set up the earliest eye hospital. It was the first western hospital in China. In 1866, it was renamed as Boji hospital, the first missionary hospital in mainland China. By 1919, there have been 7 missionary hospitals in Anhui province, 16 in Zhejiang province, 20 in municipalities, 36 in Fujian province, 12 in Henan province, 16 in Hunan province, 18 in Hubei province, 2 in Gansu province, 5 in Jiangxi province, 23 in Jiangsu province, 4 in Guangxi province, 30 in Guangdong province, 2 in Guizhou province, 8 in Shanxi province, 23 in Shandong province, 2 in Shanxi province, 23 in Sichuan province, 22 in the three provinces in Northeast China, 2 in Yunnan province, 3 in Xinjiang province. Among these hospitals, French hospitals in Kunming and Qingdao, Renaitang hospital in Guangzhou, and Guangcici Hospital in Shanghai are the famous ones.

3.2.3Pulishing Materials

From 1860 to 1949, western missionaries opened printing factories, publishing companies, translation institutions, which translated and published a large number of books and pamphlets introducing western culture. These books and pamphlets covered medicine, astronomy, religion, law, mathematics, crafts and military system. The first modern Chinese newspaper, "Chinese Monthly Magazine" was founded in 1815 by William Milne in Malacca. Then, Church newspapers such as Multinational Communiqué and Chinese Repository had a great influence on the intelligentsia in Chinese society.

3.3Talent Development

In the period of Ming and Qing Dynasties, the spread of Christianity in China led to the first climax in the history of Sino-Western cultural exchange. Two different cultures also had developed in the process of cultural exchange and collision. However, the most important role in the communication between China and Western at that time was not any European country, but the missionaries of Society of Jesus. They not only sowed the seeds of faith, but also provided Chinese with the advanced western science and technology and cultural knowledge. What they had done also had a profound effect on European views on Chinese. That achievement was inseparable from the strict training of Society of Jesus on the missionaries. As one of main congregations in Christianity，Society of Jesus was primarily appointed to educate and preach, and engaged in cultural exchange and educational undertakings around the world.

In order to make its members be the spokesmen of Christianity in daily life and play practical effect on society, Society of Jesus attached great importance to the education of members. So, they established lots of educational institution in Europe, which not only cultivated a large number of outstanding talents for congregation, but also had a profound influence on the education of future generations. The training idea of Society of Jesus is to promote human beings with a comprehensive development that means the body, emotion, reason and faith of one person should develop equally, not partially. It is inadvisable to be anxious for success and to spoil things by excessive enthusiasm. Thus, Society of Jesus trained their members prudently for long time, which resulted in two features:

3.3.1 Long-term Cultivation

The period of talent-development is always more than 15 years. Although according to the “Educational Plan” of Society of Jesus, only the person who is over 13-year-old can be qualified, many members were absorbed and cultivated by Jesuit school in early childhood, such as Matteo Ricci and Descartes. Matteo Ricci attended Society of Jesus at the age of 9, and Descartes at 8 years old. They were educated since early childhood, which had a significant impact on their spirit, ideology and accumulation of knowledge.

Generally speaking, the period of training lasts for a long time because of their prudence on that training. In accordance with the regulations of Society of Jesus, every applicant must experience a rigorous review. If they are qualified, they will be enrolled into school as a trainee for strict mental and physical training for two years. If they pass the training, part of them will be enrolled into college as a scholar taking formal education for 5 years, which is a dispensable condition for being a literal teacher in Jesuit schools. After graduation, you have to study in philosophy and theology for further promotion. At last, provided that having passing the examination; you will be qualified to be a priest. The minority of them continue to learn theology for a few years. As long as they pass the examination, they will be titled with “father”. The whole education process takes about 15 or 16 years.

3.3.2 Comprehensive Cultivation

Society of Jesus also realized that effective missionary activities must be based on comprehensive knowledge. So, they emphasized in the member’s education. During the period of studying, members need to study literature, mathematics, metaphysics, language and knowledge of natural science, in addition to the theology for members’ comprehensive study. Society of Jesus made the relevant provisions: the aim of studying is to save ourselves and others’ souls under the grace of god, which is to measure the content and scale of common learning and specific learning, and to decide what should we learn and how much we should study. In general, it is conducive to achieve that goal, when you grasp many languages, logic, natural and moral philosophy, metaphysics, theology, scholasticism and other Christian classics.

4. The Implication for the Establishment of Confucius Institute Overseas

The dissemination strategy of Christianity in China has a lot to lend to Confucius Institute, in spite of different contexts.

4.1Catering to Local Needs

From the progress of Christianity’s spread in China, the missionaries showed the Chinese the wonders of western science and technology to attract their attention. Confucius Institute can learn from this. Most people from other countries are very interested in Chinese culture; they think it is so mysterious. For example, the movie Kung Fu Panda uses a lot of Chinese cultural elements to show the world of Kung Fu and make a wonderful success.

Chinese culture enjoys a long historical standing of a wide range and distinctive varieties. It is quite difficult to enounciate it clearly and without overgeneralization if the Chinese culture is illustrated randomly. In the broad sense, culture refers to the aggregation of the spiritual and material wealth created by social groups---human beings, in the long-term social practice activities.

4.1.1Material Culture

At the material level, Chinese culture can be divided into several categories. The first one is well-known historical buildings handed down from the past dynasties, such as The Imperial Palace, Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, Tian An Men and Suzhou garden, etc. The second one is well-known places of historic figures and cultural heritage, such as Temple of Confucius, Terra-Cotta Warriors and Mo Kao Grotto at Dunhuang, etc. The third one is significant inventions and creations, such as papermaking technology, compass, gunpowder and typography, etc. The fourth one is excellent manufacturing technique and national crafts, such as ceramics, silk, martial art, tea-making art, acupuncture, culinary art and paper cutting, etc. The fifth one is peculiar natural resources, including great rivers, such as the Yangtze River and the Yellow River; famous mountains, such as Mount Zhumulangma, Mount Tai and Mount Lu; animals and plants, such as panda and sequoia, etc. All these are material wealth with significant Chinese characteristics that are accumulated during the long-term historical development of China.

4.1.2Non-material Culture

Non-material culture refers to the spiritual culture generated in the historical development of China. The first category is classic works, such as Sun Tzu’s Art of War, Shih Chi, Pilgrimage to the West and A Dream in Red Mansions, etc. All these are the product of Chinese people’s wisdom over the past centuries. In the meanwhile, what’s implied in these characters is abundant historical and cultural information. The second one is artistic achievements, such as the quintessence of Chinese culture---Peking opera, Chinese calligraphy and folk music, which are all indispensable treasures in Chinese culture and the artistic treasury of world culture. The third one is elements that can reflect Chinese spirit of creation and innovation. Peculiar and important creations of the nation are such elements, for example, Chinese dragon, which is a symbol of Chinese national spirit.

4.2 Improving the Establishment of Confucius Institute

Nowadays, the cooperation between Hanban and foreign universities is too one-side .Under Hanban rules, Confucius Institutes are jointly managed by Chinese universities and their foreign partner universities/organizations. Hanban offers teaching materials, instructors and start-up funds for the Confucius Institutes, while foreign partners provide space and facilities. Chinese universities are the vanguard in seeking out new foreign partners and cooperative venues in which to open new Confucius Institutes.

According to Confucius Institute annual development report 2014, “By the end of 2014, there had been 475 Confucius Institutes and 851 Confucius Classrooms in 126 countries and regions. During the year, 35 new Confucius Institutes and 205 new Confucius Classrooms were established. There are altogether 33,745 full or part-time native Chinese and indigenous teachers in Confucius Institutes worldwide, an increase of 17.7% over 2013. Globally, Confucius Institutes (Classrooms) held around 67,000 various Chinese classes for 1,110,000 registered students, an increase of 30.6% over 2013. There are now 15 Confucius Institutes that have more than 10,000 registered students each. Another 12 Confucius Institutes were chosen as Model Confucius Institutes in 2014, bringing the number to 26 in total.”Now, the Confucius Institute has been regarded and a field where people all over the world have chance to study Chinese and to get familiar with Chinese culture. It also provides foreigners with platform to exchange Chinese culture and foreign culture, which is helpful to strengthen the cooperation and friendship between Chinese and people all over the world. However, there is still a huge gap between missionary schools and Confucius Institutes in schooling quantity, types and regional distribution. According to the regional distributive list recorded in Confucius Institute annual development report 2014, there are 42 Confucius Institutes in 29 African countries. However, in America, there are 107 Confucius Institutes that is two times more than that in whole Africa. What’s more, 13 Confucius Institutes have been established in Thailand and 21in South Korea where there are only hundreds of millions of citizens. But, there are only 2 Confucius Institutes in India, a country with billion people. Confucius Institutes should learn the successful experience of Christian schools in these aspects, complete self-construction and play the greatest role in the transmission of culture.

4.2.1 Achieving Balanced Regional Distribution

The above statistics show that there is an imbalance in the regional distribution of Confucius Institutes. If one university or institution abroad wants to cooperate with Confucius Institutes, it has to apply firstly. When the application is approved by Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban), it suggests that it is qualified. On one hand, this approval process has its merits, because the applying universities or institutions are always preeminent and well-known in its own field. On the other hand, it is demerits, for those universities mostly locate in developed countries and developed metropolis and medium-sized cities. For these reasons, considering cooperation with foreign schools, not only should we strengthen the cooperation with developed countries and areas, but also should we pay attention to the cooperation with less developed countries and areas. For the construction of Confucius Institute, in horizontal direction, we should expand radiating area. In the longitudinal direction, we should develop further. We should not only enhance the cooperation with the well-known national universities, but emphasize on collaborating with local universities to establish extensive spreading-space.

4.2.2 Establishing Cooperation beyond Institutions of Higher Leaning

So far, Confucius Institutes are confined to universities at home and abroad, which results that college students in target countries are the most influenced people. And Teaching Chinese through cultural exchange and commerce, Confucius Institutes also have influences in part of adults. Besides, the contact with juveniles is scarce. Language is not only and communicating instrument, but also contains strong social function. For those juveniles whose ideologies have not yet been formed, language acquisition intensifies cultural infiltration. So, we can borrow the experience of missionary schools in China. To improve the school-running mode of Confucius Institutes, we should enrich our school-running forms, strengthen the cooperative modes of university- secondary school, secondary school-secondary school, and primary school-primary school, enhance the effect among young recipients, and stimulate the communication between contemporary students domestic and overseas.

4.2.3Setting up Chinese Medicine Department

At first, Chinese medicine is not acceptable to western countries. Americans even believe that Chinese medicine is fake science. It is hard to change their mind in one night. However, Chinese medicine has a lot of healthcare prescriptions and skills such as Guasha and acupuncture. Confucius Institute can set up such kind of Chinese medicine department to disseminate traditional Chinese health care and Chinese culture, which may help spread Chinese culture.

What’s more, in some poor areas where Chinese medicine is easier to be accepted, the Chinese medicine department under CI can help improve local medical treatment and gain favor. The favor from these areas will react back to spread Chinese.

4.3Developing Competent Teachers

Nowadays, with the development of China’s economy, more and more foreigners are learning Chinese. Chinese fever causes the talent gap of Chinese language teachers for foreigner. Some of these Chinese language teachers are English majors or other language learners, some are Chinese language learners, some major in Teaching Chinese as a foreign language, and others have other backgrounds. To some degree, most of them are not qualified disseminators of Chinese culture. First, competent teachers should master Chinese culture. Second, they must be familiar with the target countries’ culture. Third, they should have dissemination ability to spread Chinese culture.

4.3.1 Long-term Cultivation

We can learn from the Christian’s experience of talent cultivation and cultivate a long-term mechanism of talent cultivation.

Firstly, specialized cultivation should start in senior high school. It is stipulated by the Jesuit’s education plan that trainees should begin to receive education at the age of thirteen. The minors can accept something novel and build their ideology and concepts very easily. Many extraordinary talents received Jesuit’s education and training during their childhood. We can also cultivate talents in advance, and offer specialized education towards those students who are aspired to be engaged in the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language. The concrete plan is to set up major and basic courses in the first grade, and add specialized courses of teaching Chinese as a foreign language in the second grade. The courses are mainly centralized in the basic knowledge of language and culture, such as modern Chinese language, the history of Chinese and foreign civilization, and oral English, etc. They aim at reinforcing the cultural deposits and lay a foundation for the further cultivation.

Secondly, the system of continuous study in undergraduate and postgraduate can be implemented in the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language. Since the four-year undergraduate study is too short and the setting of major courses is not reasonable enough, the quality of talents cannot be guaranteed. Hence, it is necessary to extend the period of cultivation. In addition, a large number of postgraduates on international Chinese language education didn’t study in the same field in the undergraduate study. They are mostly graduates on Chinese language and literature or foreign language, and even science and engineering. In other words, they haven’t built the learning foundation of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. Under this circumstance, it is impossible for them to reach the requirements in just two or three years. Therefore, two to three years’ postgraduate study can be added to the four years’ undergraduate study, so as to reinforce the specialized cultivation and concrete practice, and make full preparations for Chinese teaching.

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