An integral component of President Mary Sue Coleman's China Initiatives, the Confucius Institute at the University of Michigan (CIUM) promotes substantive interactions with China's arts and cultures in the U-M community and beyond, providing sites and activities for students, faculty, staff, and other community members to experience China's finest expressions in architecture, calligraphy, ceramics, dance, music, painting, theatre, and other media, and to gain understandings about Chinese people and their cultures.