Update on Asia Society's Chinese Language Program
For more than a decade, the Asia Society’s Center for Global Education has been one of the leading facilitators of Chinese language learning in K-12 classrooms across the United States. Over the years, these programs have benefitted thousands of American teachers and hundreds of thousands of American students, and helped build bridges between the two nations.
This Chinese language program of support to schools was previously funded by the Chinese Ministry of Education through Hanban and, from November 2020, by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation. As a result of the latter, the network of schools supported by the program was renamed as the Chinese Language Partner Network. Throughout, the decisions as to which schools received funding in support of their Chinese language programs and how exactly those funds were deployed for that purpose were made solely by the Asia Society’s Center for Global Education.
In January 2021, the Asia Society Center for Global Education’s Chinese language learning was put under internal review. As a result, in June 2021, the Asia Society’s Center for Global Education discontinued any affiliation with the Confucius Institute, Confucius Classrooms, and the Chinese Language Partner Network. In addition, the Asia Society’s Center for Global Education no longer accepts funding from Hanban, and the successor entities that continue its work in supporting Chinese language, including the Center for Language Education and Cooperation (as well as the Chinese International Education Foundation with whom the Asia Society’s Center for Global Education never entered into a relationship). The Center has informed all schools of this transition, and funding to the schools has been terminated.
The Asia Society is an independent institution which has no affiliation with any government. Funders of our work do not influence its content. If an external funder sought to bring influence to bear on an Asia Society project or program, our policy would be to suspend that project or program immediately.
The Asia Society’s Center for Global Education continues to receive funding from a range of American foundations and corporations to deliver its programs. Asia Society believes deeply in the long-term mission of the study of Asian languages and cultures across the United States. We look forward to making announcements in the near future on the redesign of our programs.
Neelam Chowdhary
Acting Vice President, Center for Global Education