Chinese institute hoping more Kiwis take up Mandarin

China will be focusing on expanding its language network here in a bid to get more Kiwis speaking Mandarin, Confucius Institute director Nora Yao said yesterday.

The expansion will be part of China's global plan to increase the number of Confucius Institutes from 314 to 500 by next year.

But instead of getting new institutes, the expansion in New Zealand will come in the form of branch offices and centres, Ms Yao said.

"Our focus this year is to set up these centres in the South Island, possibly in Christchurch and Dunedin, but we are also looking at other parts of New Zealand," she said.

Named after the ancient Chinese sage who stressed the importance of education, the institutes are spread over 81 countries - including one based at the University of Auckland - and have cost Beijing about 500 million yuan ($140 million) to co-fund so far.

The rapid spread of the Confucius Institutes has been dogged by suspicion they have a political flavour, which was rubbished by Ms Yao.

She said the institute was China's equivalent to the British Council or Germany's Goethe Institute, and existed mainly to meet a global demand for Mandarin classes.

"There is nothing new about such initiatives, the British have been doing it for years with the British Council and the French with the Alliance Francaise," Ms Yao said.

"I think people are just too sensitive on anything about China. The institute is just to help Kiwis learn Mandarin and understand the Chinese culture," Ms Yao said.

However, she said because language was linked to a country, some people could interpret that as "being political".

According to the institute, China's rise as a global economic power has sparked an increasing interest in the Mandarin language, with some 40 million people around the world learning the language.

China's expansion has led to Japan announcing its intention to increase its official Japanese-language overseas education facilities, Sakura Network, from 10 to 100 in three years, which the Kyodo news agency said was "to counter the spread of Chinese language and culture".

Takamichi Okabe, Japan's consul general to New Zealand, said there were no plans to set up one here.

"However, it is entirely possible that in the future, this network will be extended to existing educational facilities like universities in New Zealand," Mr Okabe said.