In order to run Confucius Institute smoothly and tell Chinese stories, 2019 European Confucius Institutes Joint Conference, sponsored by Hanban and organized by Confucius Institute of our university in Bergen, was held at University of Bergen in Norway on June 19 - 20.

At 09:00 AM on June 19 (Local time), the opening ceremony of the conference was started in the Ora Music Hall at University of Bergen. The opening ceremony was presided over by Lu Nan, president of Confucius Institute of Bergen. Orson, president of University of Bergen, Beckner, president of Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, delivered a welcoming speech respectively. Representatives of Chinese side including Si Liang, deputy director of the Office for International Exchange and Cooperation of our university, Gao Huanyue, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of China University of Political Science & Law, Chang Quansheng, First Secretary of the Education Department of Chinese Embassy in Norway, and Wang Feng, vice director of Europe Office of Hanban, made thematic speeches in succession. Si Liang shared the spirit contained in the important reply to all the graduate students of 2016 champion class of BSU by General Secretary Xi Jinping on June 18, introduced to the representatives attending the conference the measures adopted by our university in deepening the comprehensive reform and advancing the “three transitions”, and summarized the achievements made by BSU over the past 11 years in operating Confucius Institute of Bergen independently as the only cooperative university of Chinese side.

After the opening ceremony, the presidents (from China and foreign countries) of more than 30 Confucius Institutes in Europe carried out panel discussion around the theme of “how to improve the quality of Confucius Institutes and how to assess the teaching quality of Confucius Institutes”. The heated discussions produced fruitful results.

The representatives of our university also participated in the meeting of the board of governors of Confucius Institute of Bergen during this trip. The meeting selected new chairman and vice chairman; discussed the development plan of Confucius Institute of Bergen; approved the scheme of building two new Confucius classrooms after deliberation; discussed issues like how to raise the teaching quality of Chinese and the teaching level of Chinese teachers at Confucius Institute, development of the local teaching materials for Chinese and Wushu, standardizing the design of Wushu courses. Si Liang put forward suggestions as to standardizing the design of Wushu courses and development of the local teaching materials with characteristics of Wushu.

Eden Otta, general secretary of Norwegian Ice Hockey Association, got to Bergen from Olso on a special trip to hold a face-to-face meeting with the delegation of our university. Otta introduced the current situation of Norwegian ice hockey, organizational structure of Norwegian Ice Hockey Association and the building of the national ice hockey team of Norway, and he expressed a strong wish to cooperate with China in different aspects. Si Liang introduced the fast development of ice hockey in China in recent years and the efforts made by ice hockey for contending in Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Si Liang expected both sides to have matches in exchange on a regular basis in the future and make preparations for Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games together.