w88 casino News Network (Contributed by the International Chinese Education (Business) Practice and Research Base)On February 2, local time, the Business Confucius Institute at the University of Victoria in Australia held a Spring Festival celebration event to welcome the Year of the Dragon. This event is fully supported by the Victoria University Student Center and Alumni Association, the Australian Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce, U3A Yarra Chinese Senior University, and the Australian Chinese Writers Association. The event attracted more than 80 people, and the atmosphere was warm. Everyone gathered together to welcome the Year of the Dragon.
The celebration consists of two parts: "Celebrating the Spring Festival" and "Understanding Impressionism" themed art lectures. The Australian Dean, Professor Colin Clark, delivered a welcome speech to kick off the Spring Festival celebrations. On behalf of the university and the Confucius Institute, he warmly welcomed teachers and students from the University of Victoria, other universities in Melbourne, Chinese course students of the Confucius Institute, and friends from the local Chinese community. He also thanked the Australian Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce, U3A Yarra Chinese Senior University, and the Australian Chinese Writers Association for their support in the preparation stage of this event. I wish everyone good luck and good health in the Year of the Dragon. Mr. Yang Hairong, consultant of the Confucius Institute and president of the Australian Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce, introduced the community guests attending the event and expressed his gratitude to Ms. Wang Xiaoyue, president of U3A Yarra Chinese Senior University, and Mr. Gu Rui, secretary-general of the Australian Chinese Writers Association.
Figure 1: Welcome speech (from left to right: President Yang Hairong, Professor Colin Clark, Secretary-General Gu Rui)
In celebrating the Spring Festival, the Confucius Institute team prepared delicious dumplings for everyone and designed three workshops: writing the word "福", drawing a round fan, and making a circle game. The day of the event happened to be Little New Year. Everyone tasted dumplings together, looked back on the Year of the Rabbit, and talked about the Year of the Dragon.
Picture 2: Eating dumplings to celebrate the New Year
During the workshop on writing the word "福", the Confucius Institute team prepared pens, ink, paper and inkstones for everyone, and specially provided exquisite Doufang red rice paper. Everyone followed the calligraphy teacher of the Confucius Institute to write the word "福", completed a series of joyful works, and took "福" home. Mr. Hong Pisen, a member of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce and a famous calligrapher, also came to participate in this event and showed everyone the charm of calligraphy with his pen, which attracted repeated applause.
Picture 3: Write the word "福"
In the round fan painting workshop, everyone experienced the fun of painting a round fan simply and quickly. Using only green and black colored pens, they sketched out a naive panda, and paired it with fresh bamboo. Everyone received a round fan representing Chinese elements. The Chinese New Year was originally celebrated during the Spring Festival. The Confucius Institute is located in the southern hemisphere and it is summer. The panda bamboo fan brings a refreshing feeling to celebrate the New Year in summer.
Picture 4: Painted round fan
After everyone experienced writing the word "福" and drawing a round fan, they all joined in the ring game. This simple and joyful game adds a strong festive atmosphere to the Spring Festival celebrations.
Picture 5: Ring game
After the Spring Festival celebration workshop, Mr. Gu Rui, Secretary General of the Australian Chinese Writers Association, gave an art lecture on "Understanding Impressionism". Mr. Gu Rui is keen on popularizing art knowledge and has held a series of art lectures at many libraries in Melbourne, the Australian Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce, the Tongji University Alumni Association in Melbourne, Shanghai Normal University Tianhua College of Art, Shanghai Caoying Reading Club and other educational and cultural institutions or societies. His latest book "Approaching Van Gogh" will be published by Shanghai Culture Publishing House in October 2023. At the lecture, Mr. Gu Rui shared his research on Impressionism, popularized the origin and development process of Impressionism, led everyone to appreciate Impressionist works, and encouraged everyone to visit the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne to visit Chinese and Western paintings to cultivate artistic accomplishment. After the lecture, the audience expressed their expectations for the next art-themed lecture to the Confucius Institute team and Secretary-General Gu Rui.
Picture 6: "Understanding Impressionism" themed art lecture
This celebration of the Year of the Dragon is the first large-scale cultural event of the Confucius Institute in 2024, kicking off the series of cultural activities of the Confucius Institute in 2024. In the new year, the Confucius Institute will, as always, continue to plan and organize more similar activities for the internal community of Victoria University and the local community in Melbourne, and make positive contributions to cultural exchanges between China and Australia.
