China News Service, Xiamen, October 3 (Reporter Li Siyuan) "I felt at home as soon as I arrived at Xiamen University. I never thought that I would take root here, not just for two years, but for the rest of my life." Pan Weilian, an American professor at Xiamen University, said with emotion. On the 3rd, Xiamen University’s 70th anniversary high-quality development conference for overseas education and international Chinese education was held at the school’s Xiang’an campus. As an alumni representative, Pan Weilian took the stage and delivered a speech: "I have witnessed with my own eyes that China has learned extensively from the world. But real education has always been a two-way street, and the world also has many things to learn from China."
In 1988, Pan Weilian and his family came from the United States to Xiamen University, which specializes in teaching Chinese as a foreign language, to learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture. "Xiamen University was the first university in China in the 1980s that could accept foreigners to come to China to study Chinese." By learning Chinese, Pan Weilian fell in love with Xiamen and China, and stayed to teach at the School of Management of Xiamen University. In 1992, he obtained a permanent residence permit for foreigners from the People's Republic of China and became the first foreigner in Fujian Province to obtain a "Chinese Green Card." "Congratulations to the college, and congratulations to myself, for spending the seventh decade of my life here. Looking back, my only regret is that I didn't come here earlier."
The theme of the conference that day was "Kyageng's cultural heritage enriches the world, and mutual learning among civilizations shines across the five continents". It reviewed the 70-year history of running the school, continued to educate people, and gathered wisdom at home and abroad to discuss high-quality development plans for overseas education and international Chinese education in the new era.
“In 1956, closely following the country’s educational direction of ‘facing overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia’, Xiamen University established the Overseas Chinese Correspondence Education Department and became one of the earliest universities in China to specialize in overseas Chinese education.” Hu Wenping, president of Xiamen University and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in his speech that after seven decades, the torch has been passed down from generation to generation. The School of International Chinese Language Education/School of Overseas Education has gradually formed a distinctive pattern that places equal emphasis on international Chinese education and cultural dissemination, academic education and non-academic education, face-to-face teaching and distance education, and theoretical research and application development in parallel, and has embarked on a unique development path for overseas education.
In his speech, Yu Yunfeng, Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the Chinese-Foreign Language Exchange and Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Education, fully affirmed Xiamen University’s important contributions to enhancing the global influence of Chinese language and culture and promoting exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations. He hopes that Xiamen University will leverage its disciplinary advantages and geographical advantages as a hometown of overseas Chinese to continue to deepen its efforts in talent training, academic research, international cooperation, practical innovation, and digital and intelligent transformation.
Nigel Harkness, Executive Vice-President of Newcastle University in the UK, reviewed the cooperation process of the Confucius Institute jointly established by Newcastle University and Xiamen University. He said that the two universities have the same goals in talent cultivation, international cooperation and cross-cultural understanding. They have built a dialogue platform through Chinese courses, primary and secondary school promotion activities, academic conferences and cultural workshops to enhance understanding between people with different language and cultural backgrounds. He looks forward to further deepening the partnership and expanding exchanges and cooperation in education, scientific research and people-to-people exchanges.
Chen Zhiwei, Dean of the School of International Chinese Education/School of Overseas Education of Xiamen University, introduced the achievements of the school in four development stages, talent training, discipline construction, overseas cooperation, and exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. From cross-sea correspondence courses to global classrooms, Xiamen University’s overseas education was born because of overseas Chinese, prospered because of the Chinese language, and developed because of mutual learning among civilizations, forming a trinity of synergistic patterns of international Chinese education, Confucius Institute construction, and southern bases.
The conference also held a donation certificate awarding ceremony. Xiamen University Vice President Stalin issued a donation certificate to Wang Peikun, chairman of the Malaysia Great Wisdom Education Foundation. After donating RMB 5 million to establish the Malaysian Chinese Teacher Scholarship in 2025, the Foundation will increase its investment by another RMB 5 million in 2026 to enrich the Malaysian Chinese Teachers Special Fund, support Malaysian students to study at the school and return to China to teach after graduation, and gather social forces for the training of overseas Chinese teachers.
At the launching ceremony of new overseas teaching sites/educational practice bases, representatives from cooperative units from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Kyrgyzstan and Chen Zhiwei jointly launched a new batch of overseas teaching sites/educational practice bases to further expand the overseas school network and provide a new practice platform for international Chinese education to meet local education and social development needs. The conference also held a launching ceremony for the subject series, with author representatives jointly releasing nine academic works and teaching materials.
