TAG-Confucius Institute Holds Chinese Culture Day at the First Academy

On February 16, TAG-Confucius Institute (TAG-CI) was invited to hold Chinese Culture Day at The First Academy, in the presence of Ms. Amal Ali, Principal of The First Academy, Dr. Yang Songfang, Chinese Director of TAG-CI, Mr. Mamoun Abu Al-Sebaa, Foreign Director of TAG-CI, Ms. Randa Al-Yabroudi, Deputy Director of TAG-CI. 

The teachers from TAG-CI and about 100 people including Grade 1-4 students and teachers from The First Academy participated in the event.

TAG-CI prepared various cultural experience activities for the students such as tea ceremony, lantern making, paper-cutting, calligraphy, Taiji boxing, lion dance, etc. The students experienced them in groups under the guidance of the teachers.

In the tea ceremony area, Ms. Randa told the students that China is the hometown of tea and tea culture is the treasure of China for five thousand years. Now tea culture is popular all over the world. She also introduced the types of Chinese tea and showed them the brewing steps. The students listened with interest and enjoyed tea tasting. 

In the lantern making area, Dr. Yang Songfang explained to the students the cultural connotation of the lantern. The lantern is traditional Chinese handicraft. Every year, around the Spring Festival (Chinese Lunar New Year) and the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar, people hang red lanterns that symbolize reunion to create an auspicious and festive atmosphere. Then the teacher Ms. Guan Xia introduced the materials for making lanterns and showed the making methods. The students learned carefully and made lanterns step by step and very soon the colorful lanterns were ready. The lovely children said to the teachers: “You Chinese are so nice.” They carried their own lanterns with a sense of achievement.

In the paper-cutting area, the teacher Ms. Zhou Tong taught the students to cut three-dimensional “spring” character. Ms. Zhou first introduced that paper-cutting is a folk art in China. “Spring” is generally referred to “auspicious, festive, happy and hopeful”. 

Then she showed the students how to fold, draw and cut. The students were very attentive to watching and learning and the “spring” characters they cut were so beautiful.

In the calligraphy area, the students felt that writing Chinese characters with a brush was so magical and were eager to try. Under the guidance of the teacher Ms. Sheng Guannan, they experienced the magic of Chinese calligraphy on water paper. After that, Ms. Sheng wrote a Chinese name for each present student. Some students also asked the teacher to write the Chinese names for their family members. They were proud of having Chinese names.

After experiencing the above-mentioned activities, the students learned Taiji boxing with the teacher Ms. Guan Xia. Ms. Guan taught the students several basic movements of Taiji boxing through on-site demonstration and guidance. The students were full of interest and imitated the teacher happily. Although they didn’t understand the traditional principles of Taiji, they were learning actively.  

Lion dance also brought a lot of fun to the students. They first watched the lion dance video and were attracted by the cute lion head. Then with the help of the teachers, they put on the lion dance costume and performed with the partners. The hall was filled with children’s merry and ringing laughter. 

This was the first time that the students of The First Academy participated in the Chinese cultural activities. During the event, they asked the teachers many interesting questions and showed their curiosity about and love for China and Chinese culture. Principal Amal Ali particularly expressed gratitude to TAG-CI for bringing such wonderful Chinese cultural activities to the students and hoped to have more cooperation with TAG-CI in the future.