These events suggest that the mode of Confucius Institute is far from success and Chinese culture is not readily acceptable to others. Some university claimed that the CI was “a spy agency established to gather cultural intelligence”. Some said that the Hanban arrangement no longer met the university’s international plans. Others issued the human rights complaint. However, the development of Confucius Institute is related to the spreading of Chinese culture abroad, and further impacts on China’s soft power. Chinese government pays much attention on it. According to The Economist,“ through the Hanban, a government entity, China provides the centres with paid-for instructors and sponsors cultural events at them. It’s spending is considerable, and growing rapidly. In 2013 it was $278m, more than six times as much as in 2006. China’s funding for Confucius Institutes amounts to about $100000-200000 a year on many campuses, and sometimes more.” 

Christianity’s dissemination in China is certainly successful. Christianity has its origin in Palestine in 1st century AD. Afterwards, it spreads all over the world. There are more than 2 billion believers in the world, and more than 30million registered in mainland China. During its spread around the world, some resistance occurred too. However, the team of believers grows constantly, and more and more people learn Christianity and accept it. This paper reviews the lessons of Christianity’s spreading in China, and offers out some suggestions to Confucius Institute.

2. Literature Review

There are a lot of Confucius Institute studies. The studies are usually pided in two aspects, either studying the mode of Confucius Institute, or comparing it with other language promotion agencies to learn some lessons. Wang Zhanpeng and Hao Li (2014) use the example of Ireland Confucius Institute to conclude the function of CI. Wu Gang and Li Jin (2014) compare Goethe-Institut and Confucius Institute and makes useful recommendations. But few of CI studies make a thorough inquiry of CI’s closure.

     Christianity in China has a history going back to the 7th century during the Tang dynasty. Today, it comprises Catholics, Protestants, and a small number of Orthodox Christians. Although its lineage in China is not as ancient as the institutional religions of Taoism, Mahayana Buddhism and Confucianism, Christianity has existed in China since at least 7th century and has gained influence over the past 200 years.源:自*吹冰`%论,文'网·www.chuibin.com/

     In recent years, the number of Chinese Christians has increased significantly, particularly since the easing of restrictions on religious activity during economic reforms in the late 1970s; Christians were 4 million before 1949, and are in the tens of millions today. Various statistical analyses have found that between 2% and 4% of the Chinese identify as Christian.

No matter what problems that Christianity have faced in the process of dissemination in China, the differences between different cultures or the strategies that they have used are ubiquitous when two different cultures collide, because there is a similarity between the establishment of Confucius Institute abroad and the spread of Christianity in China. The aims of these two activities are to spread culture in foreign areas. Heterogeneous culture is relative to the homogeneous culture and local culture. Local culture is a cultural pattern that has succeeded for generations in a nation, a country and an area. There is a significant difference between the nature of local culture and that of heterogeneous culture, for the latter culture is full of obvious region characteristics.               

Therefore, through reviewing and analyzing the dissemination of Christianity in China, this paper provides implications for the establishment of Confucius Institute and the dissemination of Chinese culture at overseas.