Bali Mandarin Center is just one of the growing number of Indonesian schools and centers offering Mandarin courses in response to booming market demand. All across the archipelago, students, entrepreneurs and professionals are learning Mandarin, encouraged by potential career and business opportunities brought by Chinese tourists and investors.
For example, China is among the biggest sources of tourists for Indonesia. In 2025, out of a total 15.3 million foreign visitors to Indonesia, Chinese tourist arrivals reached 1.34 million, making China the fourth-largest source of international visitors to Indonesia, according to a report by Xinhua News Agency.
China is also Indonesia's largest trading partner and one of its top investors, with Indonesia participating in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.
In 2023, China and Indonesia signed an agreement on Chinese language education along with seven other agreements on economic and trade cooperation, health, technology transfer and research.
The agreement was the culmination of many years of initiatives in Indonesia since President Abdurrahman Wahid introduced sweeping reforms aimed at ending discriminatory policies against the ethnic Chinese community.
Before Wahid took office in 1999, Suharto ruled Indonesia for more than 30 years. Suharto's New Order era restricted the public display of the Chinese language, culture, Confucianism and education. Suharto resigned in 1998 following widespread unrest.
In 2000, Wahid revoked regulations that had restricted the public expression of Chinese culture, including the celebration of Imlek, which refers to Chinese New Year.
In 2003, following the government's plan to expand Chinese language education into the provinces, Indonesia for the first time sent 51 school teachers to China for a one-month Mandarin training program in cooperation with the Chinese government. The number increased to 100 in 2004 and continued to rise in the following years, Fasli Jalal, rector of YARSI University in Jakarta and former vice minister of education and culture, wrote in a 2021 column published by the online news site Kompas.
Jalal said that in 2004, China started sending Mandarin language teachers to Indonesian schools.
In 2007, Indonesia began formally integrating Chinese language learning into its school curriculum from kindergarten to university levels.
