A slice of China, in Germany

For German man Carsten Krause, there is no better job than promoting Chinese culture.

The 40-year-old director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Hamburg, is thrilled to be able to continue his work promoting Chinese culture and language to the world. He has just signed another five-year contract with the institute.

"It's interesting to promote Chinese culture. The Confucius Institute is more like my child, a 5-year-old that goes to kindergarten but doesn't need breastfeeding anymore," says Krause in fluent Chinese.

Carsten Krause, director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Hamburg, introduces the institute in his office, June 13, 2012. [Photo/Xu Lin]

Krause graduated from the Department of Chinese Language and Culture at the University of Hamburg, with a PhD in 2001.

In 2004, the Chinese government established Confucius Institutes to promote Chinese language and culture abroad. These institutes are nonprofit organizations attached to foreign academic institutions such as universities. As of April 2012, there were 129 Confucius Institutes and 104 Confucius Classrooms in Europe.

In 2007, the University of Hamburg and Fudan University from Shanghai co-established the Confucius Institute in the German city. Krause spent about half a year preparing the opening of the institute and training to become its director.

As one of the most important Chinese training centers in the city, the institute is recruiting more and more students, with three volunteers and 15 teachers. It attracts about 120 to 150 students per semester, and there are three semesters in a year.

About half of the students are office workers, including those who are going to China on a business trip, and nearly one fourth are middle school and university students. There are four classes per week, and each 90-minute class costs 6.5 euros ($7.86).

"It's a medium price, compared with other institutions," Krause says.

The University of Hamburg offers them three rooms to use as offices and classrooms. They can also use the university's classrooms for free.

There are a variety of activities on weekends, such as their weekly program, Sino-German Dialogue, in which Chinese and German experts give speeches about various fields including science, arts and history.

According to Krause, the institute keeps in touch with more than 20 teaching research centers, media and governmental departments in Hamburg. They often cooperate with the city's theaters and cinemas to invite famous Chinese artists to perform, such as The National Ballet of China.

He said the institute is popular in the city. The government provides strong support and invited the institute to join the mayor's delegation to visit China in 2011.

The Confucius Institute headquarters, or Hanban, the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, regulates that both Chinese and foreign parties should invest equally in the Confucius Institute.

While Hanban provides funds, a Chinese director and volunteers, the university provides office space, equipment and a foreign director. Both directors should co-direct the institute.

"I like the institute's unique way of cooperation between two directors, because the Chinese director Geng Baosheng and I have become best friends," Krause says.

He says there is no rule to divide their work clearly. They just do what they are good at, and everything works well.

"We make budgets and final accounts in accordance with German laws. The institute is financially transparent. It's impossible to do anything stealthily," he says.

The Hamburg mayor Erster Burgermeister said the German people has a growing interest in Chinese culture. "I'm proud of the Goethe Institute as well as Hamburg's Confucius Institute, which help citizens to learn Chinese language and culture. The young Hamburg people become more and more interested in China," he said.