Six Confucius Institutes hold Online New Year Celebrations

North Campus, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, March 1^th2020: To spread the jovial atmosphere and encourage more students from different Confucius institutes to participate in this year’s Spring Festival, the Confucius institute of GDUFS launched an online New Year celebrations in collaboration with six other Confucius institutes, including the Confucius institute of The Ural State University and others.

Papercuttings of students

A series of New Year celebrations based on the theme of “AVOID THE PANDEMIC, BUT NOT LOVE——WE ARE TOGETHER” was carried out through their mutual efforts. Activities included Chinese cooking contest, Chinese writing contest, and video-making activity. Moreover, tutorial videos on Chinese traditional sports culture such as Tai Chi were offered, which won over students’hearts.

The Confucius institute of the Ural State University:

The head of the Confucius institute presented an exquisitely-made video which introduced Chinese New Year traditions in Russian. Tao Hua Du, a Chinese style dance, the only performance showed by Russian cast, became the highlight of the online Chinese Spring Festival Gala.

Chinese dance

The Confucius institute of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru:

Teachers of the institutes tailored a variety of New Year activities to the students, which won popularity right away. For beginners, online courses concerning Chinese New Year traditions were provided, while paper cutting activities were for intermediate students. Students in the advanced class were presented with Chinese writing courses and cuisine-making.

Chinese writing

The Confucius institute of the University of Cape Verde:

To better engage students into the New Year celebrations, teachers in the Confucius institute of the University of Cape Verde chose Chinese cuisine and spring scrolls as the major focus. Under the guidance of teachers, students successfully made Jiaozi, rice dumplings and Niangao. Apart from that, writing Chinese spring scrolls enabling students to better appreciate the beauty of Chinese characters. Bearing the goal of enhancing connections between Confucius institutes in mind, teachers uploaded videos of Chinese culture on multiple platforms such as Facebook and QQLive, which greatly enriched online teaching resources, allowing students in other Confucius institutes to learn.

Chinese spring scrolls

The Confucius institute of Ainshams University:

An online lecture on the  Chinese Spring Festival greeted students in Egypt. Ms. Li depicted a vivid picture of various traditional customs that had been passing down from generation to generation in China. For example, the 12 zodiacs, reunion dinner and spring scrolls. Ms. Li even elaborated on popular trends such as the blessing-gathering activity conducted by Alipay and WeChat red envelop.

An article about Spring Festival written by Egypt student

The Confucius institute of Universidade do Porto:

Chinese Food and crafts constituted an important ingredient of the New Year celebrations of the Confucius institute of Universidade do Porto. By watching A Bite of China, students got to know more about the symbolic meaning of rice dumplings and Jiaozi. Teachers also shared with them how to make paper-cutting and Chinese lantern. They even made videos in Chinese on New Year’s blessings, which were shared and liked by loads of people.

New Year’ blessings in Chinese

The Confucius institute of Sapporo University: Exercise in New Year

To enhance students’understanding of Chinese sports culture, the Confucius institute of Sapporo University launched many activities, among which Kung Fu and Tai Chi were a great success, enabling students to get fit while staying at home.

Closing the book of 2020, opening a new chapter of 2021. Though we may not be able to conduct activities offline owing to the pandemic, still the merry spirit of celebrating Chinese Spring Festival went on. By participating in various celebration activities, more and more students gained a better insight into Chinese culture.

Written by: Zheng Zoe

Photo by: From GDUFS News Website

Edited by: Kyle Muntz, Wang Mengyu