Only 3rd honorary doctorate given in university's 104-year-old history

Xu Lin, director-general of Hanban — purveyor of Confucius Institutes (CI) worldwide, received an honorary doctorate from Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) on Saturday. Xu also delivered the commencement address at the ceremony that awarded degrees to more than 2000 graduate and undergraduate students.

The President of Middle Tennessee State University Sydney McPhee congratulates Xu Lin for getting an honorary doctorate degree from MTSU. May Zhou / China Daily

According to Sydney McPhee, president of MTSU, Xu was only the third person ever to receive an honorary doctorate in the 104-year history of the university, "an honor that Madam Xu is more than qualified to receive due to her extraordinary contributions in promoting cultural and educational exchanges between China and the US".

Xu, who taught herself English, made her speech in English. In it she said that over the past three years, through the exchange programs of CI at MTSU, more than 20 MTSU students received full scholarships to study at Chinese universities for a year or longer; more than 40 high school students participated in summer camps in China; 20 elementary school students visited China; and 35 Chinese students visited MTSU. Xu stressed that the CI was committed to continuing its support for American students to study Chinese in China.

Xu gave three pieces of advice to the graduates: find two questions that are worth researching, develop a hobby and be confident.

Xu ended her remarks by singing "only you can make this world seem right, only you can make the darkness bright", a performance that won great applause from the audience.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of CI, which Xu considers a great success. "We have developed a network of more than 440 CIs in 122 countries," she said. "The teachers we send out are functioning as our goodwill ambassadors. They work and live side by side with foreign teachers and students, and their actions affect people in the countries where they teach.

"CI is an innovative platform," Xu said. "Through it we open our hearts and doors to let foreign educators see who we are."

Xu sees Confucius Institutes as primarily a language platform in its first 10 years and for the next 10 years, "we will focus on making it a cultural platform. Now that they have studied our language for 10 years, there will be more demand for understanding Chinese culture in the next 10 years."

McPhee, who has visited more than 20 provinces in China in the past 17 years, described himself as a Chinophile, a term he coined himself to express his love of China. He published a book of photographs entitled China, through the Eyes of a University President, which not only records his trips to China but also reflects the development of China throughout the years.

McPhee said that MTSU is planning to expand CI in the next five years. "We just acquired a $10 million building and I already carved out a space for CI worth millions of dollars to develop a Chinese music program," McPhee said.

McPhee said that MTSU has a very strong pop music program and he would like to further expand the school's music scope by introducing Chinese music and instruments through CI. "We already have the facility ready, and I am traveling to Beijing next week to finalize the proposal to Hanban and apply for funding. This will be a game changer, this will be the first culture integrated into our world renowned music program,"said McPhee.

Xu said that Hanban has agreed to the idea in principle already. "I am very happy that people in the area of Tennessee that produced Elvis are interested in embracing Chinese music," Xu said.

McPhee said CI went beyond a mere language program; it also helped the university develop a research relationship with Guangxi Botanical Garden in Nanning to study the medicinal properties of Chinese herbs. "We have received more than 200 samples and our scientists have already discovered more than 40 cases in which the extracts are positively related to fighting cancer," he said.

The night before the graduation ceremony, McPhee hosted a reception for Xu and her delegation at his official residence. University officials and faculty members including CI director Zheng Guanping and associate director Cui Yiping, as well as VIPs such as State Senator Bill Ketron, Lieutenant General William Phillips and former mayor of Murfreesboro Tommy Bragg attended.