A launch ceremony of three Confucius Classrooms was held by the Confucius Institute at the University of Canterbury （CIUC） in the Middleton Grange School Performing Theatre in Christchurch on Friday evening May 10th. The three Classrooms were to be hosted by Christchurch Boys’High School, St. Margaret’s College and Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti. The distinguished guests included Madam Tan Xiutian, Chinese Consul General in Christchurch, Mr. Eric Livingstone, National President of the New Zealand China Friendship Society, Dr. Jonathan le Cocq, Acting Pro-Vice Chancellor （Arts） of UC, Mr. Paul McWilliams, Headmaster of Christchurch Boys’High School （CBHS）, Mrs. Gillian Simpson, Executive Principal of St. Margaret’s College, Mr. Alastair Wells, Co-director of Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti and Mr. Xu Hengzhen, Director of International Office of Education and Chinese Language, Henan Province. Present also were Dr. Adam Lam and Prof. Hu Hong, Director and Deputy Director of the CIUC. Over 300 people attended the ceremony.

The launch ceremony was presided over by Dr. Lam. Jonathan le Cocq said that the CIUC was an important part of the University of Canterbury. The number of students studying Chinese had increased from 500 to over 5000 in the past three years. Madam Tan Xiutian, on behalf of the Confucius Institute Headquarters, presented the plaques of the Confucius Classrooms respectively to the hosting school principals before she delivered a speech, in which she highly commended the efforts that CIUC had made in promoting Chinese in the South Island of New Zealand. She stated that Chinese as the medium of communication was of great significance in facilitating the exchanges between New Zealand and China. Paul McWilliams, the headmaster of CBHS represented the three Confucius Classrooms in expressing their willingness and determination to promote Chinese language and culture in Christchurch.

To celebrate the launch of the three Confucius Classrooms, CIUC invited the Wulin Hanyun troupe, sponsored by the CI Headquarters, to have a tour performance at the local schools in Christchurch. The performance consisted of Shaolin martial arts and traditional Chinese music instruments playing. The performance was echoed with constant applause and cheering from the beginning to the end. After the final curtain called, many people flocked to the stage to take photos with the performers. One elderly lady praised ZhaoXian and Jin Yadi on their brilliant musical performances. A student from the Chinese programme at UC, Luke Bulger, was so excited after watching the performance that he emailed Hu Hong, the deputy director of CIUC, at midnight in mixed Chinese and English expressing his pleasure, “The young people from Henan province really did a great job in martial arts! It was such an amazing night!  I have many reasons to be grateful to the Confucius Institute!”

The Wulin Hanyun troupe also performed in five Christchurch schools on the 9th and 10th of May. Their performances were highly appreciated, and prompted some students to say that they wanted to learn Chinese and Chinese martial arts. The Wulin Hanyun troupe performances, as Madam Tan commented in her speech, may give rise to a new enthusiasm of studying Chinese in Christchurch.

 The launch ceremony

 Shaolin martial arts

 The ensemble of traditional Chinese instruments