Confucius Institute popular in Europe

In recent years, along with the popularization of the Chinese language, Confucius Institutes have expanded rapidly all over the world. They not only promote the Chinese language, but also facilitate cultural exchanges. Now let's head to the UK and Italy to take a look at the Confucius Institutes there.

The United Kingdom has the largest number of Confucius Institutes in Europe, with 20 throughout the country, and four located in London.

This is a Chinese clinic in London. But its staff are not Chinese, the doctors here are all either British or from other countries. All of them can speak Chinese, play Taichi, and most importantly, they're all acupuncture practitioners, which is very popular in the UK.

This is the Confucius Institute for Business in London. The students here are all executives from large companies such as HSBC, Ernst & Young, and Deloitte.

Huang Guoying, London Confucius Institute for Business, said, "Those companies are experiencing increasing demand in oriental markets. They're eager to learn more about Chinese culture so they can enter into the Chinese market."

In Italy, the Confucius Institute organises more than 200 performances and events each year.

In 2012, a Kongfu performance in Venice drew huge interest among local Italians.

Rao Qin, Dean of Confucius Institute, Venice, said, "We had limited capacity, there was only enough space for 250 people. But there was a huge audience outside, so we did the whole performance twice. More than 800 people watched it."

The performance thrilled local people, and at the same time, another traditional Chinese performance was entertaining audiences in Italy's capital.

Wen Zheng, Dean of Confucius Inst., Univ. of Rome La Sapienza, said, "The parade started at 1:30 pm. This is the lion and dragon dance. All the performers are Italian. Crowds of people flocked to watch the street performances. Police in the capital say around100-thousand people came to watch the performance."

The Confucius Institute may not have been so well known in 2004. But as China's economic influence spreads globally, so are the branches of this Chinese Institute of learning and more and more people are interested in learning about China's language and culture.