Since 2004, the Chinese government encourages the founding of Confucius Institutes around the globe in order to promote Chinese language and culture abroad and to contribute to the cultural exchange.

The city of Duisburg and the University of Duisburg-Essen provide an ideal location for a Confucius Institute, as both have been maintaining good contacts with Wuhan since the 1980s. Furthermore, the University of Duisburg-Essen possesses an outstanding regional expertise due to the Institute of East Asian Studies, which is engaged in both research and graduate education on East Asia and is the most comprehensive university institute committed to contemporary East Asian studies in Germany.

However, the Confucius Institute Metropolis Ruhr, based in Duisburg, does not only offer its expertise to the city of Duisburg, but to the whole Ruhr Metropolitan Region. This also reflects in the institute's name. The Institute was offically established in autumn 2009 and ever since organises and manages events with reference to China in the whole region of the Ruhr Area.

Besides the mediation of language and cultural skills, other important foci of the Institute's work are China's current socio-economic issues, therefore the Institute also assumes tasks in political, economic and media consulting and promotes scientific exchange.