The goal of ‘people to people’ diplomacy
The Chinese government has set up over 400 Confucius Institutes across the globe - and the youngest is in Johannesburg.
|||#Focac: Johannesburg - The University of Johannesburg is home to a centre that aims to build better relations between South Africa and China. According to the director of the Confucius Institute David Monyae, relations between the two countries are currently only conducted at a high level. The institute aims to boost relations “people to people”.
Monyae says: “Currently, the relations are done through politicians and business people. Our aim is to try and have people-to-people interactions on culture and language.
“The one part of our institute deals with language, where we give Mandarin classes. The other part deals with the exchange of scholars.
“We will send students to China for exchange programmes.”
The Institute, which was established over a year ago, has partnered with the Nanjing University of Technology in China.
Earlier this year, the Institute staged a Nelson Mandela exhibition by Chinese artist Li Bin.
The most important task for the institute, according to Monyae, is to stop the fear-mongering messaging around China and their involvement in Africa.
“Most of the information written about China is from the Western world and it comes from a fear-mongering perspective.
“The message is always that they are here to buy us. We need to look beyond that and we should not take a simplistic view.
“We need to remember that the Chinese and Africans started trading with each other a long time ago before white settlers arrived (in Africa).
Our civilisations collapsed but recently there has been a resurgence of the Chinese economy. We need to look at what lessons we can learn from them,” he says.
He says learning “what makes the Chinese tick” would be an advantage for African countries.
The Confucius Institute at the University of Johannesburg, which Monyae co-directs with Professor Lyu Jiangao, is the youngest of the five institutes in the country.
Other institutes can be found at the University of Stellenbosch, the University of Cape Town, Rhodes University and the Durban University of Technology.
The Chinese government runs about 400 Confucius Institutes across the world; 42 of which are on the African continent.
The Johannesburg institute will be different from the other local ones in their approach to cultural matters, Monyae revealed.
“We are going to take an African approach. We will look into how the Confucian philosophy is similar to ubuntu. We will also work with institutions like the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection. We need to understand how our cultures are similar and different,” Monyae stresses.
The Institute teaches Mandarin to locals and, Monyae says, they might teach South African languages to Chinese nationals if there is a demand.
On public resistance to the introduction of Mandarin as an elective language in local schools, Monyae says “a sober analysis” has to occur.
“We need to remember that the language is not going to be compulsory. This will be a golden opportunity for South Africa because if we understand the language it can lead to the growing of Chinese businesses that are already in the country.
“It will help with job creation.”
THE STAR