The Confucius Institute craze currently sweeping the Sinophile world has given rise to myriad sorts of sponsorship, an official with the Chinese Language Council International said Saturday. By June 1 this year, 156 Confucius Institutes had been launched in 54 countries and regions, with various ones receiving sponsorship from governments, companies or educational institutes.

Bearing the name of the ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius institutes have become synonymous with Chinese language and culture around the world.

Apart from the 156 already-approved ones, 205 overseas applications for new Confucius Institutes, have been fielded by their central office said Xu Lin, director of the office., who hopes to see 200 Confucius Institutes established worldwide at the end of this year.

China is now the world's fourth largest economy, contributing a yearly average of 13 percent to world economic growth over the past five years.

According to Xu, a London-based Confucius Institute specially for businessmen has been jointly launched there by Chinese and foreign companies and universities. This mirrored the increasing awareness among businessmen that speaking Chinese will be helpful to their affairs.

"Diversified sponsorship will help Confucius Institutes fit into the local scene," Xu said. This represents simply one avenue for innovation among Confucius Institutes with Xu revealing that an online version would soon be launched as well as a sister web-based data bank on Chinese language teaching.

Confucius Institute-themed television programs will also soon surface with China also currently working on Chinese language learning radio programs in 38 foreign languages.

Xu revealed that, with the 2nd International Conference on the Chinese language hovering on the horizon, her office will soon design new standards on learning Chinese and on teaching Chinese to non-Chinese speakers.

In an effort to promote Chinese language and culture, China inaugurated the 1st International Conference on the Chinese language in July 2005. Since then, Chinese learning has gone from strength to strength with the Ministry of Education predicting 100 million will study Chinese worldwide by 2010.

(Xinhua News Agency June 25, 2007)