Located in Virginia on the U.S. East Coast, in the suburbs of the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., the Center for Bridging Cultures is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to promoting Chinese language education and fostering educational and cultural exchange. The organization was registered and officially began operations in November 2021.
The Chairman of the Board is William Reeder, former Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at George Mason University, Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors for the Confucius Institute at George Mason University, and an advisor to the Confucius Institute Headquarters. The administrative head of the organization is Gao Qing, who previously served as the Director of the Confucius Institute at George Mason University and later as the Director of the Confucius Institute U.S. Center.
With a mission to build cross-cultural communication, the organization's purpose is to construct bridges of understanding across cultural divides for the people of China and the United States through educational means. Chinese language education is its current primary focus. While centered on the U.S. East Coast, the organization's reach extends nationwide, catering to the needs of K-12 schools for Chinese language education. It plays a crucial role in continuing and expanding the Chinese language programs for K-12 schools and communities that were previously offered by Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms. By leveraging its strengths in public outreach, the organization aims to enhance the influence and recognition of Chinese language education and U.S.-China people-to-people exchanges in the United States.
The organization's service area includes Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Colorado, Ohio, and California, among others. It maintains contact and cooperation with over fifty different schools and educational and cultural institutions.
The organization provides a variety of resources and information to education officials and educators across the United States. It closely monitors the trends and developments in American Chinese language education and cultural exchange, seeks practical solutions to current challenges in the field, and works to maintain and advance U.S.-China educational exchange and cooperation.
