On September 29, Mr. Stuart Wachowicz, the chair of Board of Directors & Advisory Board of Confucius Institute, Dr. Wei Li, the director of Confucius Institute, as well as 9 visiting teachers were invited to attend the official launch of the Centre for Chinese Studies and the Centre for Chinese Teacher Development at Concordia University of Edmonton.
The Centre has been established to offer studies in Chinese language and culture as well as to provide continuing education and training for Chinese language teachers in Alberta and Canada. The CIE provided a variety of supports to enable the establishment of this new program at Concordia University of Edmonton.
A delegation from Qilu Normal University of Shandong Province, led by the vice president, attended the ceremony and participated in presenting a paper in a panel discussion on innovation in teacher education.
During the launch ceremony, CIE visiting teacher Jinjin Du performed a traditional Chinese dance which received much applause from the audience.