Education |

Denver’s Confucius Institute celebrates 10-year link to Chinese culture

Adopted as a baby from China, Christian Gaither had long wondered about her heritage. It turns out a key to the Community College of Denver student’s cultural roots was hiding in plain sight on the Auraria campus.

The Confucius Institute is part of an international network of 500 centers that promote the culture and language of China. It is the only center in the world on a community college campus.

Gaither, in her second year at the school, made her discovery accidentally last year. “I needed a work-study program,” she said, “and I went down the list of places (to work) and I saw this place and I said, ‘What’s this doing here?'”

She immediately applied, mostly out of an urge to find her cultural roots. Gaither was born in mainland China and adopted by a Denver couple when she was a year old.

“I was probably looking for a real connection to my past,” she said, “and I found it here.”

She helps host events and classes at the institute, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary on campus with a program of music, dancing, singing and martial arts. A delegation from China, including officials from the University of Ji Nan, which jointly runs the institute, flew to Denver to join the festivities.

Despite active programming, the institute operates in relative obscurity, director Jane Lim said.

“As much as we try and promote it, lots of people don’t realize we are here,” Lim said. “We always go to campus events, like health fairs, and have a table with all sorts of information about us.”

Students and community members learn Chinese and the nation’s culture, as well as tai chi, at the institute, which has a library of more than 3,000 books about China and hosts a Chinese movie night on the second Wednesday of each month. People frequently stop by the center simply to learn about a country whose influence is growing around the world.

“Many, many people are curious,” Lim said. “And we welcome all here.”

“It’s nice here, and the people are very accommodating,” University of Colorado Denver student Vanessa Pan said as she practiced Chinese calligraphy at the institute. “It’s fascinating stuff. But the center is so completely hidden, I didn’t know it was here until a couple of days ago.”

CCD professor Jiansheng Guatney applied to Chinese Language Council International to establish a Confucius Institute at CCD more than 10 years ago. It was a bid to educate Americans about China and to establish cross-cultural ties, Lim said.

Guatney, Lim said, “wanted to give a more multicultural feel to the campus and downtown. And to spread some understanding between the two cultures, the United States and China.”

Confucius was China’s most famous teacher, philosopher and political theorist, and his ideas influenced East Asia.

In its decade at CCD, the institute has worked with local schools and organizations to bridge the cultural gap between the two largest economic powers of the world, said Ji Nan president Shiquang Zhang, who spoke at the 10th anniversary celebration.

“During the 10 years, the Confucius Institute at CCD has bridged minds through language and cultural interaction, become a window for the people in Denver and the surrounding areas to know and learn more about China,” Zhang said.

More than 6,500 students have studied Chinese and the culture at the institute, which has sent more than 20 students to study in China, sponsored more than 100 students’ summer trips to educational camps in China, and offered Chinese language skills tests to more than 900 students.

More than 63,000 college and public school students have attended the institute’s cultural events, and it has recruited more than 60 Chinese language instructors from China to teach Chinese at Colorado schools.

The institute has held more than 30 teacher-training workshops, which are becoming increasingly popular, Lim said.

“China has grown politically and economically recently,” she said. “People are finding it even more important to learn its languages.”

China can also learn from the United States, said Gang Xu, co-director of the institute and deputy director of Ji Nan’s International Affairs Office.

“China can learn much from America on how to include other cultures and backgrounds in your country,” Xu said. “The American culture is able to assimilate so many different people. It’s something the Chinese can learn from.”