"China has shown great developing potential, which might have scared some countries due to the lack of mutual understanding. So it's a big mission and my work is for foreigners (to better understand China)."

Ezra F. Vogel, former director of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University and author of Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China.

"With the development of globalization, the East has to meet the West and the West has to meet the East. The Confucius Institute offers a convenient channel for Germans to learn about China in regards to East-West communication."

Alfons Labisch, former president of Heinrich-Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany, and head of the Confucius Institute at the university.

"This approach (for the world to better understand China) has to be done from both sides. If China wants us to understand it better, we should be allowed to read more material in the archive. It's very important. And we have to reflect or rethink all the bias we might have in our expectations to China. Both approaches are very necessary if you want to create a better understanding of China."

Simon Preker, young scholar from the University of Hamburg who now studies contemporary Chinese history in a PhD program at Fudan University in Shanghai.

"There are seven universities in Egypt offering Chinese teaching. With the development of China-Egypt ties in industry, the demand for Chinese learning will definitely grow. Egyptian people are becoming more interested in Chinese culture and language. Sinology will serve as a window for more young people around the world to learn more about China."

Hend Abdelhalim, a graduate from Suez Canal University in Egypt who acquired her PhD in Chinese language studies at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.

"Many Chinese today have a deep understanding and knowledge of the West, even though most of them don't have a chance to go to the West. Still, in the West, many people don't have enough understanding of China. We need more interaction and more works of Chinese culture and literature being translated into Western languages, not only English but French and German. It's important for more Confucius Institutes to be set up in the world to promote Chinese language and culture."

Thierry Meynard, a French scholar who studies philosophical encounters between China and the West and a philosophy professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.

(China Daily USA 09/09/2014 page5)