Beijing, July 7 (ZXS) -- "There is now a popular saying in China called 'two-way rushing,' China goes to a country through Confucius Institutes, and this country also goes to China through Confucius Institutes, and this two-way interaction has promoted the development of the common culture of China and ASEAN. At the joint meeting of Confucius Institutes in Southeast Asia held in Beijing on the 21th, Zhai Kun, professor of the School of International Studies of Peking University and vice president of the Institute of Regional and Country Studies, summarized the important role of Confucius Institutes in promoting cultural exchanges between China and ASEAN with three keywords: "exchange culture", "cornerstone of civilization" and "wisdom and wisdom in traveling".
In 1991, China and ASEAN officially started the dialogue process. Zhai Kun believes that in the following 32 years, China-ASEAN relations have achieved leapfrog development, forming a unique and precipitated "China-ASEAN exchange culture", creating common concepts and symbols between regions, and the Confucius Institute is one of them.
Zhai Kun further took "interconnection" as an example. He pointed out that from the ASEAN Connectivity Master Plan adopted in 2010 to China's Belt and Road Initiative to promote the interconnection and common development of all countries, the word "connectivity" has precipitated into the consensus of China and ASEAN, and then become a common norm worldwide. The culture of peaceful development and win-win cooperation fostered by China and ASEAN has become the cornerstone of the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative.
At present, ASEAN is China's largest trading partner. In 2021, China and ASEAN established a comprehensive strategic partnership. Zhai Kun believes that as a southern country that jointly takes the road of modernization, the exchange culture between China and ASEAN takes peaceful development and win-win cooperation as the core, and China and ASEAN advocate the establishment of an inclusive regional order, forming a culture of win-win cooperation.
Talking about how Confucius Institutes can better promote the development of exchanges between China and ASEAN in the future, Zhai Kun suggested that first of all, we should carry out extensive people-to-people exchanges to understand local social conditions and public opinion. At the same time, we will use Chinese as a medium to jointly promote the exchange culture between China and ASEAN. In addition, regional country studies are needed to establish a two-way feedback model.
"Chinese is a means of cultural exchange, as the saying goes, 'go to what mountains and sing what song', every time a Confucius Institute lands in a country, it is necessary to seriously investigate the needs of the country's development." Zhai Kun said that with the development and implementation of the "Chinese+" characteristic courses, the Confucius Institute will further meet the needs of the social and economic development of Southeast Asian countries in the future and achieve "two-way travel". (End)