A Review of Confucius Institute：Theoretical Understanding，Developments，Challenges and Localization

Introduction

With the introduction of the first Confucius Institute in Seoul，Korea in 2004，the last decade has witnessed a rapid expansion of those language-teaching institutions.Today，Confucius Institute has found its presence around the world with 525 established branches and over 1100 classrooms worldwide^[1].This rapid growth corresponds to a sharp increase in the demand for Chinese language learning.It has been estimated that the global learners of Chinese as a foreign language has exceeded 40 million.The major function of Confucius Institute is to promote Chinese language and culture globally.Confucius Institute is named after the Chinese philosopher Confucius who lived from 551 to 479 BCE，and it is a cultural and linguistic disseminator，often located on foreign universities’ campuses，promoting international exchange and collaboration at the tertiary education level^[2].Hanban，the Office of Chinese Language Council，is the major funder.

The emergence and development of Confucius Institutes have drawn significant public attention in recent years.Based on existing literature，this article aims to critically examine and synthesis various arguments relating to Confucius Institute’s function，development and challenges.It aims to not only develop theoretical understanding of Confucius Institute by interrogating concepts such as soft power and internationalisation of higher education into the conceptualisation，but also attempts to reveal the complexity，challenges and dilemmas those institutes have encountered，with the intention of identifying crux and consequently proposing recommendations for policy and practice for the future.

Conceptualisation of Confucius Institutes

A vast growing literature have attempted to conceptualise Confucius Institutes from various perspectives.Two prominent approaches are studying Confucius Institutes as a soft power projection and in the context of higher education internationalisation.This section will demonstrate how these two perspectives are to be understood.

Confucius Institute & Soft Power

Scanning the literature on Confucius Institutes，there are a few noticeable ways in which they have been studied.A commonly accepted approach is to examine Confucius Institute with its cultural political significance and implications for education activities，particularly associated with the notion of soft power coined by Nye ^[3] borrowed from international relation theory.A range of scholars have made explicit effort to relate the notion of soft power to the studies of Confucius Institute ^{[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]}.This section begins with a theoretical review of the concept of soft.power and then explain how soft power has been relevant and incorporated into the understanding of Confucius Institute for theorising the relationship between language learning and cultural diplomacy.

The eminent US political scientist Nye ^[14] argues that “power” as the ability to influence the behaviour of others in order to get the outcomes one wants.He suggests that there are three basic forms of power to be exercised.First，coerce through threats；second，induce behavioural change with payments；and third attract and co-opt.Nevertheless，the first two are forms of hard power.This paper，on the other hand，is concerned with the third dimension of power - that of the soft power.Nye ^[15] describes soft power as having the capacity to obtain preferred outcomes through attraction，the ability to inspire desire and duty，persuade to cooperate and avoid coercion.It is vividly contrasting with hard power that is often manifested as military might to define a nation's strategy in gaining international dominance.