At the turn of the year, we ring out the Year of Tiger and ring in the Year of Rabbit. On the occasion of the incoming Spring Festival, the School of International Education (SIE) and the Department of Art and Design (DAD) jointly organized a cultural interaction activity for our international students. Li Qifang, Party Branch Secretary of SIE was present and delivered a speech, before Professor Ruan Lv Na from Chinese Language Center and Professor Zhou Xiaoru from DAD gave a lecture respectively. Among the present were foreign students studying in SIE, counselors, as well as the student representatives from DAD, together experiencing the attraction of the traditional Chinese festivals.
In his speech, Li Qifang summarized the efforts and achievements we have made in promoting foreign students studying here in the past year and extended best wishes to the foreign students and their family members. As the most important traditional festival of the Chinese nation and one of the most important ties in the Chinese cultural gene, the Spring Festival not only reflects the Chinese people’s adherence to the responsibility value and their expectation for reunion with families and friends, but also embodies the pursuit of millions of families for a better life.
The teachers has made elaborate preparation for this activity to enable the foreign students to better feel and experience how the traditional Chinese New Year is like and gain more understanding of the traditional Chinese culture, through online and offline interactions with them. Ruan Lvna introduced the origin of the Spring Festival, the meaning and the customs of “celebrating the Spring Festival”. Finally, she also showed the foreign students how to exchange greetings for the Spring Festival in Chinese way, creating a lively atmosphere full of fun. Next, Zhou Xiaoru gave an account of the origin of the hieroglyphics of Chinese characters and the historical evolution of the Chinese character “福” (blessing), from the inscriptions on oracle bones to those on bronze objects and small seal scripts; from the official script used in the Han Dynasty to the regular script popular in the Tang Dynasty, to the cursive script common in the Song Dynasty, as well as to the "福" characters written by the emperors of the past dynasties. To help the foreign students appreciate the long and profound history of Chinese culture, Professor Zhu also taught them to learn and write Chinese characters 福” (blessing), “寿” (longevity), “财” (wealth) and “囍” (happiness), so that the students can further taste the beauty of Chinese culture.
By taking the Spring Festival cultural experience as an opportunity, this activity is to lead the foreign students to experience the atmosphere of the traditional Chinese year, feel the charm of the excellent traditional Chinese culture and further cultivate the feelings of knowing China and making friendship with China.
