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“Chinese Culture Day”in 2014 Launched at St. Andrews College by the Confucius Institute at Universit

 

On March 14, 2014, teachers from the Confucius Institute at University of Canterbury, headed by Prof. Hu Hong, Director of the Institute, came to the prestigious St. Andrew’s College to participate in the “Chinese Culture Day” events with the teachers and students of Year Six at the College.

With much careful preparation, the Confucius Institute brought a rich variety of Chinese cultural activities to the teachers and students at St. Andrew’s College, such as Chinese calligraphy, paper-cutting, bracelet-making, Chinese martial arts, Chinese folk dances and dumpling-making.

 


Come and try our fists and kicks!

 

 

Most of the boy students chose to practice Chinese martial arts at first. Gathering on the sports ground, they practiced their horse stances (a posture in Chinese martial arts which looks like riding on a horse), fist hitting and leg kicking, which made them appear really impressive and powerful. Girl students, on the other hand, preferred dances. They looked like a group of pretty fairies when dancing to the elegant Chinese folk song Jasmine. A male teacher in his 50s from the college said that he heard this charming song by chance when he was ten years old, and listening to this song again on the Chinese Culture Day brought him back to his childhood.

 


Chinese calligraphy, paper-cutting and bracelet-making were also popular among many students. For example, the calligraphy teacher not only taught the students how to write Chinese characters “日” (the sun) and “月” (the moon), but also demonstrated the magic connotations of Chinese characters through deriving a new character “明” (bright) from combining the former two characters together. What’s more, the dumpling-making activity was also well received by students. The Culture Day didn't come to an end until 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and when the students were leaving, each of them expressed his or her gratitude by sincerely saying “xiexie, xiexie (thank you)”

 


Learning Chinese calligraphy

 


How great our paper-cuts are!

 

At the end of the events, the Confucius Institute at the University of Canterbury presented the Year Six four Chinese palace lanterns as gifts with Chinese character “fu” (fortune) on them, symbolizing good luck and happiness. A female teacher, who held a palace lantern, said, “It was such a pity that my husband and I missed the Lantern Festival in February, because it was so crowded that we couldn't find a parking place. I am so happy that my dream finally comes true this time.”