About the Confucius Institute

Goldsmiths Confucius Institute strives to bring Chinese language and culture to a wider audience.

Goldsmiths Confucius Institute for Dance and Performance was founded in Summer 2012 as a collaboration between Goldsmiths, University of London, Beijing Dance Academy and Hanban/Confucius Institute Headquarters.

The department also partners with Capital Normal University (CNU) and was the proud winner of the Global Confucius Institute of the Year Award 2017.

By combining academic language teaching with in-country experience, we encourage our students to communicate, understand and become linguistic and cultural interpreters.

Our students leave Goldsmiths with a wealth of experience, having developed their social, analytical, research, writing and translation skills, attained proficiency in Mandarin and gained a cultural awareness of the many facets of East-Asian culture.

We teach

As the axis of global debates tilts towards East Asia in general, and China in particular, we have responded by offering degree programmes that provide the cultural experience, as well as the intellectual and linguistic tools necessary to navigate in this new international order.

Our joint honours undergraduate degrees allow students to participate in intensive Mandarin and simplified Chinese language learning led by native Mandarin speakers whilst specialising in either international relations in conjunction with the Department of Politics and International Relations, or sociology in conjunction with the Department of Sociology.

The department additionally provides the core specialist module for the MA Translation (English-Chinese Translation and Interpreting pathway) together with the Department of English and Creative Writing.

Mandarin Chinese and contextual subjects are also offered as optional credit courses to students of other departments as well as short courses covering Mandarin Chinese, Chinese dance, Chinese martial arts and Chinese music to members of the local and wider community.

We’re diverse

As the first and only Confucius Institute to specialise in dance, performance and the arts, we run a diverse spectrum of extracurricular activities and one-off events.

Both our undergraduates and postgraduates are able to benefit by participating in 1 to 1 Mandarin tutorials and drop-in sessions, fortnightly cultural salons as well as departmental projects and activities taking place each term.

We also run a variety of projects across the UK to help support cultural education.

These include working to establish Confucius Classrooms with schools and arranging Chinese cultural workshops, performances and teacher training courses for primary and secondary schools and educational organisations.

We create opportunities

We aim to help Goldsmiths students, staff and members of the community participate in academic and cultural exchanges between the UK and Chinese speaking countries.

We have supported academic exchange programmes as part of the ERASMUS+ scheme and organise funded annual summer and winter trips to China.

Our undergraduate degree programmes include an intensive in-country experience with a year abroad at Capital Normal University (CNU) in Beijing. The year abroad gives a practical insight into life in China, enabling students to develop their language skills and gather primary sources to help inform their fourth-year dissertations.

At the end of the undergraduate degree, students also have the option to study for a further year at CNU and obtain an additional degree in Chinese Studies.

This is a unique opportunity and the only programme of its kind to be approved by the Ministry of Education in China.