Dr. Yaw-Chin Ho and AUM Chancellor John G. Veres III formalize AUM’s partnership with the Hanban at its headquarters in Beijing on March 23.

Ni Hao and welcome to the Confucius Institute at Auburn Montgomery!

The Office of Chinese Language Council International, or Hanban, has cleared the way for Auburn University at Montgomery to establish a Confucius Institute on campus, joining a network of more than 300 organizations worldwide to promote Chinese language and culture.

“We are incredibly proud to be able to establish the AUM Confucius Institute, and we consider our partnership with the Office of Chinese Language Council International one of this university’s highest honors,” said Chancellor John G. Veres III. “This achievement is a testament to the vision and hard work of all those associated with AUM’s Far Eastern Initiatives and to the relationships we have built with the faculty, staff and students of our 33 sister universities in China.”

Veres and former Special Assistant to the Chancellor Yaw-Chin Ho, and head of the Office of East Asia Initiatives, traveled to Beijing in late March, where they formalized the university’s partnership with Hanban at its headquarters on March 23. Hubei University of Economics, located in Wuhan, has been assigned as AUM’s academic partner in China.

The AUM Confucius Institute will promote Chinese language and culture both on campus and in the surrounding community, including local K-12 schools. The university plans dedicate a Confucius Garden on campus.

Established in 2004 to promote the teaching of Chinese culture and language abroad, Confucius Institutes are non-profit public organizations aligned with the Chinese government through the Ministry of Education. They are named in honor of Confucius, a Chinese historian, teacher and philosopher who lived 551-479 B.C.

The Office of East Asia Initiatives provides support to international visitors from the Asian Pacific, including visiting scholars, administrators and students.