Hanyu 汉语 Hànyǔ

When I first read Jonathan Zimmerman’s Christian Science Monitor op/ed Beware China’s role in US Chinese classes, I wondered if Canadians would react as he did. Jonathan, a Professor of Education and History at New York University attempted to draw parallels between the funding of Mandarin classes in the US by the Chinese Government and attempts by Mussolini’s pre-WWII Fascist government to promote political propaganda through the financing of Italian language schools.

Two years after Jonathan’s piece we find a similar case in BC where Mandarin courses are being 100% funded by the Hanban. The courses will also be available online for free to BC residents. Dennis Pilon, Political Science professor at University of Victoria, believes it is “undemocratic” to accept or solicit money from foreign governments and that the “BC government was putting itself in a position of conflict”.

Click here for a Chinese version of the story.

Dennis Pilon makes an important point. So what about the ideological implications? What sort of curriculum might be expect from the Hanban? Presumably a modern version of what China has been successfully teaching to foreign students from around the world for over 40 years.

Mussolini and Fascism? I doubt it. How about Sunzi in Neo-liberal clothing - ie soft power? Is the Hanban really so different from the British Council?

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