Confucius Institute at Lomonosov Moscow State University Celebrated its 5th Anniversary in Moscow

The conference venue

The group photo of Zhao Guocheng (first from right), Minister Counsellor for Education from the Chinese Embassy in Russia, Galina Kulikova (second from left), the first Vice President of Russia-China Friendship Association, Ren Guangxuan (first from left), Chinese Director of the Confucius Institute at Lomonosov Moscow State University, and Tatiana Bukhtiyarova, the Russian Director.

MOSCOW, NOV. 23 (www.people.com.cn) (By Liu Xu and Qu Haiqi) The Confucius Institute at Lomonosov Moscow State University held the 5th anniversary ceremony on November 22th in the main building of the university. Many distinguished guests attended this ceremony, including Zhao Guocheng, Minister Counsellor for Education from the Chinese Embassy in Russia, Li Hongquan, Vice Director of International Co-operation Office of Beijing University, Prof. N.V.Syomin, Vice President of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Galina Kulikova, the first Vice President of Russia-China Friendship Association, Ren Guangxuan, Chinese Director of the Confucius Institute at Lomonosov Moscow State University, Tatiana Bukhtiyarova, the Russian Director, and some teachers and students of the Confucius Institute at Lomonosov Moscow State University and representatives of Confucius Institutes from other universities in Moscow.

Minister-Counsellor Zhao Guocheng warmly congratulated the Institute on its anniversary and highly praised its achievements over the past five years. He said, as the first and the most successful Confucius Institute in Moscow, the Confucius Institute at Lomonosov Moscow State University has made enormous contributions to the cooperation not only between Chinese and Russian universities but also in the humanities education sectors in both countries by running the regular teaching routines as well as hosting all sorts of cultural exchange activities. He attributed the success to the diligent work done by both the Chinese and Russian directors of the Confucius Institute and expressed his gratitude to Lomonosov Moscow State University for their endless support. On behalf of the Embassy, he promised to support the Confucius Institute as always and wished it a more fruitful future.

Prof. Syomin reviewed the history of the Confucius Institute at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Over the past five years, the Institute has developed into a significant platform for teaching Chinese language and promoting Chinese culture with the help of all the teaching staff. Until this year, the Institute has enrolled 11 sessions of students, which manifests the great success of the Institute. Lastly, he paid special tribute to all the working staff in the Institute for their assistance and support, with kind wishes that the Institute would continue to prosper and contribute to the stable development of the Sino-Russian relations.

Mr. Li Hongquan kindly congratulated the staff on the anniversary. He said, over the past five years, the Confucius Institute at Lomonosov Moscow State University has made obvious and solid achievements in promoting Chinese language and culture. It has been an important channel for the young people in Russia to learn Chinese language and to know about Chinese culture as well as the modern China. It has become a significant platform for talent and culture exchange between China and Russia. Beijing University has long been a good friend with Lomonosov Moscow State University. He hopes that the two universities can further develop the exchange and cooperation in terms of talents cultivation, scientific research and cultural exchange, so as to push forward the development of the higher education in both countries.

Ms. Kulikova also acknowledged the constructive work done by the Confucius Institute at Lomonosov Moscow State University in the past five years in promoting Chinese culture. She said that the establishment of the Institute was like sowing a seed of mutual understanding and friendship and now Russia and China have harvested a lot of benefits. As the friendship between Russia and China deepens, more and more young people in Russia are interested in Chinese language and culture. And the Institute plays a very significant role in promoting the communication among the youth and developing the bilateral social foundations. At last, she extended her good wishes to the Institute for a prosperous future.

Later on, Han Lihua, the Chinese Director of the Confucius Institute at Russian State University for the Humanities, Yi Fucheng, Russian Director of the Confucius Institute at Russian State University for the Humanities and Wang Fengying, the Chinese Director of the Confucius Institute at Moscow State Linguistic University also extended their warm congratulations on the ceremony.

At the end of the ceremony, the organizer gave all the attendees the 5th anniversary souvenir albums as presents.

On Nov. 23rd, the Confucius Institute at Lomonosov Moscow State University will hold a series of celebration activities, including lectures on Confucianism; exhibitions of Confucius quotes, Chinese calligraphy and Chinese traditional costumes and Chinese traditional singing and dancing gala.

Established in October, 2008, the Confucius Institute at Lomonosov Moscow State University was co-founded by Beijing University and Lomonosov Moscow State University. Currently, Chinese language courses ranging from beginners level, intermediate level to advanced level and a series of lectures on Chinese culture such as calligraphy, traditional Chinese medicine, Kung Fu and Tai Chi are accessible in the university curriculum and are very popular among the students. So far, there have been more than a thousand graduates from the Institute.

Over the past five years, the Confucius Institute at Lomonosov Moscow State University has held more than 60 cultural activities, which attracted tens of thousands of people to participate in. The cultural activities included calligraphy exhibitions, photography exhibitions, concerts, film festivals, knowledge contests and culture festivals. Among all these activities, the Chinese Culture Festival has become an important tradition and celebrated annually with a special theme for each year, such as the calligraphy art, seal cutting art and paper cutting art, which has gained a huge popularity among the university students in Moscow and Russian people.