On October 18, 2014, the University of Bucharest (UB) awarded an honorary doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa) to Madam Xu Lin, Chief Executive of Confucius Institute (CI) Headquarters and Director General of Hanban, to commend her for her outstanding contributions to cultural exchanges between China and Romania.

President of the Senate of UB (Prof. Dr. Vlad Nistor) chaired the award ceremony and UB Rector, Prof. Dr. Mircea Dumitru delivered a speech to mark the special occasion. Nearly 200 dignitaries were in attendance, including the advisor to Romanian Prime Minister, State Secretary, Department Chief and Section Chief of Romanian Ministry of Education, Research, Youth & Sports, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture & National Cultural Heritage, Chinese Ambassador to Romania; old and young Romanian Sinologists; student representatives of the Department of Chinese Language at UB’s Faculty of Foreign Languages & Literatures and Directors of CASA Romania-China.

Madam Xu Lin expressed her gratitude to UB for the honorary doctorate and enthusiastically praised CI at UB’s achievements in popularizing Chinese culture in the local society. The Institute was co-established and co-operated by UB and CUPL. In addition, she encouraged CI at UB to act as a “Champion”, joining hands with the other three CIs in Romania to work continually for greater accomplishments in the areas of overseas Chinese language teaching and cultural exchanges between the two countries.

On the same afternoon, Madam Xu held a talk with the Romanian Minister of Education, Research, Youth & Sports after the ceremony. Subsequently, a Hanban Supervision Group headed by Madam Xu visited CI at UB. H.E. Huo Yuzhen, Chinese Ambassador to Romania also joined the trip. Under the guidance of CI’s Foreign Co-Director, Prof. Luminita Baila, and its Chinese Co-Director, Prof. Xue Xiaojian, Madam Xu and her party toured every section of the Institute. During the visit, Madam Xu lavishly praised CI’s excellent teaching environment and its modern facilities. Soon afterwards, Madam Xu held cordial talks with all the faculty members of the Institute. After listening to Luminita Baila’s work report, she spoke highly of the exceptional work the Institute has done since its establishment in 2013. She encouraged them to maintain positive momentum and to do an even better job in the upcoming days.