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Exhibition: Three Hundred Years of Chinese in Germany

Vernissage: Exhibition on Chinese Language by Confucius Institute at Freie Universität Berlin, Foyer of the Silberlaube, October 20, 2015

№ 305/2015 from Oct 13, 2015

"Three Hundred Years of Chinese Language in Germany – Approaching a Distant Country" is the subject of a poster exhibition that will be on display from October 21 to November 1, 2015, in the foyer of the Silberlaube at Freie Universität. The display traces Germany's historic experience with the Chinese language. It begins in the 17th century with the acquisition of Chinese texts under the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg, describes the professionalization of Chinese as a "living" language at the Department of Oriental Languages at the University of Berlin in 1887, and portrays the development of teaching Chinese at first as an "exotic" subject and finally as a subject taught as part of the official language program at secondary schools. The vernissage will be on October 20, 2015, in the foyer in front of the Lecture Hall 1a in the Silberlaube at Freie Universität.

The exhibition focuses on the history of Chinese writing and language in Germany. It begins with the first attempts that German scholars made to acquire Chinese texts under the Great Elector, Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg. It continues with Leibniz’ and Wilhelm von Humboldt’s view of Chinese in the 18th and 19th centuries and describes the establishment of the first Chair of Modern Chinese in the Department of Oriental Languages at the University of Berlin in 1887. During the 20th century, the professionalization of Chinese as a discipline was continued, and increasingly more universities set up professorships devoted to Chinese. The number of students increased at great speed, and since the end of the 1990s, Chinese has increasingly been added to standard secondary school curricula.

The exhibition design and texts are by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Mechthild Leutner, professor emerita at the Institute of Sinology, Freie Universität Berlin and director of the Confucius Institute at Freie Universität Berlin, and Dagmar Yu-Dembski, Managing Director of the Confucus Institute at Freie Universität. They will officially open the exhibition together.

Further Information

Time and Location

  • Vernissage: Tuesday, October 20, 2015, 6 p.m.
  • Exhibition: Wednesday, October 21, 2015, through Sunday, November 15, 2015.
  • Freie Universität Berlin, Silberlaube, Foyer Hörsaal 1a, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin. subway station: Dahlem-Dorf or Thielpaltz (U3).

Contact

Sören Vogler, Confucius Institute at Freie Universität Berlin, Tel.: +49 30 838-72885, Email: svogler@zedat.fu-berlin.de

Link to the Homepage

Confucius Intsitute: www.konfuziusinstitut-berlin.de