EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES OF THE CERVANTES INSTITUTE IN CHINA

The article analyses the problem of implementation of the Cervantes network Institute's activity in the People's Republic of China in the past decades. The spreading of the Institute's educational programmes aimed at the popularization of the Spanish language and culture among the people of the country who have nothing in common with the Spanish, what is more European, cultural heritage, has become the first priority task of the work of the Institute in the present-day epoch. The fact that there are no analogues of the Bologna process in the traditional Chinese region in East Asia and that China has complicated political relations with the neighboring countries, intensifies China's aspiration for developing cooperation in the educational sphere with the structures functioning on the global scale. That is why the establishment of active ties between the Cervantes Institute and the analogous Chinese structure, the Confucian Institute, Chinese universities and other educational establishments is going on at a rapid pace. At the same time many Chinese students begin to take a great interest in getting a secondary and a higher education in Spain. So, the Cervantes Institute becomes the first step for school leavers in learning the Spanish language and gaining basic knowledge about Spanish education. Chinese universities in their turn look at the Institute as an intermediary structure in their cooperation with the Spanish higher educational establishments. However, the Institute's activity in China differs from that in many European countries that is why the Institute's educational programmes originally aimed at the European standards are changed here, with the rules and standards of the Chinese educational system having been taken into account. Much prominence in this research is given to the analysis of the specific character of the Cervantes Institute's educational programmes in China. The authors point out existing problems in the work of the Institute in China and give some recommendations which in case of their implementation will enable the Institute to broaden its educational activity and enhance its role in intercultural communication in the Chinese society.