DIALOGUE OF CULTURES
TO THE BENEFIT OF BOTH COUNTRIES Journalist Inessa Pleskachevskaya met with Anatoly Tozik, the Chairman of the Belarus-China Friendship Society, Director of the Republican Confucius Institute of Sinology at BSU, former ambassador of Belarus to China. ZVIAZDA.BY
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oday, a four-storey building in the very center of Minsk, on 11 Revolyutsionnaya Street, is difficult to recognize: a couple of years ago, people quickly ran past this half-abandoned building, and now it is a renovated light house with large windows and a unique library. Unique because it was donated by the press office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, and this is the most interesting library on China in our country. In the building there are a lot more unique things related to China. No wonder as the Republican Confucius Institute of Sinology at BSU (RCIS) is located there. I came there to talk with its director Anatoly Afanasyevich Tozik, whom I have known since his work as the Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus to China. Interest in China also unites us today. Everyone has their own personal history of the appearance of this country in life. Anatoly Afanasyevich recalls that China “burst into his life” at the end of 2004, “when I was appointed co-chairman of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation. But it first appeared in the 1960s, when I was studying at the history department. Then the Soviet-Chinese relations were uneasy, i.e. the events on Damansky (island. - Auth.), 1969, we were greatly concerned about it. Fortunately, my teachers formed a very correct attitude towards this people, their cul-
Anatoly Tozik
ture. I don’t know why, but all my life I had the idea that I should work in China, that I would be there. At first it seemed to be a dream, but, probably, when you really want something...” Anatoly Tozik was unable to part with China after his return to Belarus: he was in charge of bilateral cooperation in the rank of Deputy Prime Minister. It is admitted that when he left the civil service in December 2014, he planned to “start paying off his debts to the family, a lot of things had accumulated over the decades” and “felt very well” as a professor at the Department of Diplomatic and Consular Service. But then the Headquarters of Confucius Institutes in Beijing and his native BSU made an offer, which he could not refuse: to head Confu-
cius Institute in Minsk. In September 2019, the institute became a model one. — When it was announced that we had been awarded this title, the Deputy Director General of the Headquarters of Confucius Institutes said that at the moment the Republican Confucius Institute of Sinology at BSU was perhaps the best among all such institutions, and there are more than five hundred of them in the world now. This is a recognition of our level, quality of education and work. Anatoly Tozik is happy to speak about what has already been achieved, but even more enthusiastic about what should be done. One of the new directions of work initiated by the institute is training of Chinese
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