Fantastic gala night to greet the coming New Year’s Day
How time flies! As the end of 2019 is approaching, we had a fantastic gala night at the Cultural Square on December 12 to celebrate the upcoming 2020 New Year’s Day. Early that night, when the firecrackers lighted up the winter night, they also ignited the excitement and enthusiasm of every teacher and student, who had come together at the gala to greet the Near Year.
The performances were splendid and spectacular, with the best wishes to everyone for the New year, the dances, the orchestra music, the singing, the plays, the catwalk show, all a real feast for the eyes. Mexican students Ana Fernanda Sanchez Rojas and Antonio Alvarez Montoya were invited to sing a duet “Hoy tengo ganas de ti”. The Spanish song did sound a little foreign to the audience at the beginning, but as it went on, the audience would feel the familiar yearning for hometown. Their brilliant singing in the romantic melody gave out a sense of homesickness, their love for their native-land that seemed to be drifting in the wind across the sky and back to Mexico.
Russian student Anastasia was very excited about the gala. “There is such a great festive atmosphere tonight! We don’t have galas like this in Russia and I enjoy the wonderful night very much!” she said.
Cultural experience: foreign students enchanted by dragon dance
On the afternoon of December 12, SCBC arranged a special occasion for foreign students to experience the dragon culture at F305.
According to the first Chinese dictionary, the Origins of Chinese Characters, “dragon is the leader of the squamous animals. It can become invisible or luminous as it likes, its size can swell or shrink, and it can elongate or shorten its body. It will fly in the sky at the spring equinox and duck underwater at the autumn equinox.” After learning about the cultural image of dragon,foreign students went outdoor to have a go with dragon dance. Without any previous experience, they were quite at a loss at beginning, unable to move the dragon in rhythm. Thanks to the help of volunteers, who are students of Teaching Chinese to Students of Other Languages at SCBC, they quickly picked up the techniques of dragon dancing.
Kang Yujin, who held the ball to lead the dragon, said that he had seen dragon dance before in his home country South Korea, but he had never tried it himself. So he was really thrilled at finally having a chance doing it. He used to hear about dragon, but this interesting lesson gave him an opportunity to know more about the Chinese dragon.
French student Pauline enjoyed the experience together with her parents, who have come to SCBC to visit her recently from France. Her mother said, “dragon is a symbol of evil in French culture, but from today’s cultural class, I understand that the Chinese dragon symbolizes auspiciousness and justice.” When two cultures meet, it is the differences that make the exchanges more worthwhile. Pauline told reporters excitedly that this dragon dance experience enabled her to feel the charm of traditional Chinese culture and she would definitely continue to learn more about it.
Dr. Liang Lili from the Department of Chinese Language and Culture was the instructor of this lesson. She said that the purpose of the dragon culture class was to encourage foreign students to have closer touch with Chinese culture. She hoped that with the dragon dance class as their starting point, they could venture further in their journey of experiencing the traditional Chinese culture.
时间:Dec 17, 2019 9:40:00 AM
录入者:谢丰