Council

The London Confucius Institute has a seven member council:

Professor Itesh Sachdev, Chair

Itesh Sachdev is the Director of the SOAS-UCL CETL 'Languages of the Wider World', and head of the School of Languages at SOAS. Born in Kenya, he did his undergraduate work in Psychology at University of Bristol (UK) and his doctoral studies at McMaster University (Canada). He was a member of faculty at Birkbeck College for almost 20 years before joining SOAS. He has published widely in the social psychology of inter-group relations, language learning and teaching, multilingualism and multiculturalism. He has worked with diverse ethno-linguistic groups from several parts of the world including Bolivia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia and the UK.

Mr. Wang Yongda

Mr. Wang Yongda is Minister Counsellor, Education Section of the Embassy of PRC in the UK.

Professor Zhang Guoyou

Professor Zhang Guoyou is a vice president of Peking University. He did his BA in economics in Peking University, and then his master and doctoral degrees in economics and management before working as a Professor and Associate Dean of the Guanghua Management College in Peking University. Later, he became an Associate Dean for the College of Postgraduate Studies and then a vice president of Peking University. He has published a number of books on management science, international marketing and business operation related to Chinese enterprises. He has also won many awards for his excellence in teaching.

Professor Li Xiaoqi

Professor Li Xiaoqi is the Dean of the International College for Chinese Language Studies in Peking University, with special interest in teaching Chinese as a foreign language and modern Chinese grammar. She did her BA in Chinese at Peking University, and has worked in the field of teaching Chinese as foreign language since 1984. She taught Chinese at Stanford and other USA universities, and in France. Professor Li has published widely in the areas of teaching materials, dictionaries and research related to Chinese language teaching. She has won many awards in both teaching and research.

Dr Bernhard Fuehrer

Bernhard is Reader in Sinology at SOAS. He trained at National Taiwan University (BA) and Vienna University (PhD). He is Academic Director of Chinese Language Courses at SOAS Language Centre, acted as Chair of Department of the Languages and Cultures of China and Inner Asia (2002-2006) and Associate Dean (2004-2006). He is the author of monographs on medieval poetics (1995), the history of Sinology (2001), and has published volumes on cultural identity (1996), tradition and modernity (1997), censorship (2003) and reading (2005). He is currently working on the commentarial traditions of canonical writings, especially the Analects.

Dr George X Zhang

George is the Chinese courses co-ordinator, Language Centre, SOAS. He studied for his BA (English Language and Literature), postgraduate diploma (Linguistics) and MA (Comparative Literature) in China and obtained his PhD (Language Acquisition of Adults) from University of Nottingham in 1991. He has over 20 years teaching experience in British and Chinese universities, with a few years working in the field of management consultancy and training in the UK. He was awarded a professorship in language education by a Chinese university in 1994, and he has published on literature, language learning and teaching, teacher training, cross cultural management training, and Chinese language teaching materials.