A nice meeting with Mr. Wang Zhu, director of the Confucius Institute in Brussels, and great lover of the French language since 40 years.
LHCH: Hello Mr. Wang Zhu, director of the Confucius Institute in Brussels. First, what was your academic journey from China to us, here, in the heart of Europe?
Wang Zhu: I started my academic career at Beijing Foreign Language University (BFSU) as a French teacher. I worked there until retirement age in China, which is 60. So the question of my future activity arose. I had started my professorship at the age of 22! Was I going to continue giving French lessons in a setting other than university? By chance, I read an advertisement for the recruitment of Chinese teachers in the Confucius Institutes. I then took and passed a Hanban competition, the former Chinese headquarters of these Institutes. In 2017, I came to work here, at the Confucius Institute in Brussels, as a Chinese teacher. At the time the director was Mr. Zhang. He was replaced by a director afterwards, Mrs Wang, but the latter, after a short year in Brussels, experienced health problems. I was then asked to resume his function in September 2018.
LHCH: The director of the Confucius Institute of Liège, Madame Zhang, is also a former French teacher. A great lover of our language and our literature!
Wang Zhu: In fact, Ms. Zhang and I were colleagues in Beijing at the same University of Foreign Languages, in the department of the Faculty of French Language and Francophonie.
LHCH: In 5 years, despite your heavy workload, have you had time to visit Belgium?
Wang Zhu: Yes during the school holidays, I went to Ghent and Bruges several times, a little less often to Liège. Once in Leuven, but I did not find much interest there personally. So of course, there was the Covid pandemic. So, for two years, I haven’t moved, except for a trip to China a year ago. I was lucky enough to stay there for two and a half months! I got vaccinated there twice after my confinement. But unfortunately in Belgium, as in many European countries, Chinese vaccines are not recognized. So three months after my two Chinese doses, I had to receive two doses here in Belgium of another vaccine. Four doses to get my Covid Safe Ticket!
LHCH: Several people from the LHCH team preferred the vaccine from the Belgian firm Janssen (now part of the Johnson & Johnson group). This Belgian company has a history with China.
Wang Zhu: Yes Janssen has offices in China, in Xi’An, but for other drugs. We had attended a conference here on the course of the Janssen company because the founder, the father of the organizer of this conference, was a lover of China. After Janssen settled in China, Dr. Paul Janssen’s interest in China had arisen when several of the scientists working with him pledged to restore our famous army of terracotta soldiers from the Mausoleum of Emperor Qi Shi Huang in Xi’An.
LHCH: You celebrated the 15th anniversary of this Confucius Institute last year in an obviously complicated context.
Wang Zhu: Our Institute opened its doors in 2006. But before it, there was already a school called Chinese Academy, created by the Belgium China Association (ABC). It was the Chinese Embassy, here in Brussels, which proposed to transform this Academy into a Confucius Institute. Just had to change the name. China has offered funds to help with this project. This history makes us, after Sweden perhaps, the first Confucius Institute to have been established in Europe. One of the top ten in the world!
LHCH: In 15 years, do you know how many Chinese students have gone through the Brussels Institute?
Wang Zhu: I forgot the exact number, but it is several thousand. This year, despite the Covid, we have a good hundred registered. But we must not forget the architecture of the courses at home.
LHCH: If you could remind us a little about the organization of the Confucius Institute courses.
Wang Zhu: We obviously have Chinese language classes for teenagers and adults. There are 6 levels with one, additional, of Perfection. But we also offer courses for children. Either they are completely beginners or they are “Chinese speaking” having one or two Chinese parents or “almost Chinese speaking” having expatriate parents at some point in China. They therefore do not take place in the same way, nor on the same dates. On the other hand, there are the so-called cultural courses, courses in Chinese cooking, calligraphy, Chinese painting and Qigong or Tai Qi. We also have Go lessons on Saturdays. Finally, we offer courses for children during holiday periods. Parents can leave their children with us with confidence and rest a bit (laughs).
LHCH: What are your favorite courses, in general?
Wang Zhu: In terms of cultural classes, cooking classes are the most popular. Before Covid, classes had to be limited to a maximum of 12 students. Our kitchen downstairs is not huge. But all classes were full. Each quarter, we present a major current of Chinese cuisine. First, the cuisine of the North (I lived in Beijing for a long time). Then, the cuisine of “Jiang-Zhe-Hu”, meaning the delicious foods of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. I am a native of Jiangsu province and several of my relatives live in Shanghai. My mother, when I was young, prepared Shanghai-style dishes for me. For the third quarter, I present Sichuan spicy cuisine. These are great fragrant journeys. It’s as if you were in a Chinese restaurant, but, in addition, you can follow the process of making the dishes. I must admit, on the other hand, that the other cultural courses are not yet very fashionable. But we arrive, all the same, despite the Covid, all courses combined, between 120 and 130 registrations for the academic year 2021-2022.
We must also not forget that we have a kind of extension in a school in Sint-Niklaas in Flanders.
LHCH: During your 5 years here at the Confucius Institute, what was the age of the oldest student and the age of the youngest?
Wang Zhu: We had a 5-year-old little champion who passed his first year! And another, venerable, 70 years old!
LHCH: There were also 50 years of diplomatic relations between Belgium and China.
Wang Zhu: On this occasion, we were able to organize an exhibition of 250 posters celebrating our friendship for 50 years, yes.
LHCH: And for the Spring Festival 2022?
Wang Zhu: We organize a nice afternoon with New Year’s decoration cutting activities, painting, drawing, an introduction to the Game of Go, etc. There will be a Chinese dance performance and you can taste “jiaozi” that I will have prepared especially for this joyful Feast!
