ZISU Tour Delegation Went to Confucius Institutes in Three West African Countries
From February 22 to 25, invited by Chinese Ambassador to Liberia and appointed by Confucius Institute Headquarters, ZISU successfully sent a culture and arts performance tour delegation to Liberia, which is headed by Secretary of ZISU Discipline Inspection Commission Lu Aihua. They celebrate the Chinese Lantern Festival together with Liberian folks, oversea Chinese, embassies from different countries and international organizations in Liberia, demonstrated excellent Chinese traditional culture and spirit of Chinese college students, and got good response and wide acclaim.
On February 23, Liberia's president Ellen Sirleaf, vice president Joseph Boake, and Chinese ambassador to Liberia Zhang Yue attended and watched Chinese cultural tour performance, which is held in the City Hall of Monrovia, Liberia's capital.
President Sirleaf greatly welcomed the arrival of the tour delegation in her speech, and highly praised this cultural exchanges activity. She said that the tour delegation not only show Chinese talent for the people of Liberia, but also further reflects the profound friendship between the two countries. She thanked the efforts of all staff to support this tour, and encourage young people in the two countries to cherish the opportunity to communicate, and further understand each other’s unique culture, tradition and history.
“Friendship between countries relies on friendship between their people”, Zhang Yue stressed in his speech. China and Africa has unique civilizations, cultural exchanges is the essence for the harmonious co-existence of different cultures of the two countries. He reiterated that the adherence to the cultural exchanges and mutual learning as one of the five pillars of Sino African relations is of great significance, and spoke highly of the Confucius Institute at the University of Liberia for its rich achievements in the local cultural exchange activities, he said that the embassy will continue to support the work of the Confucius Institute, and continue to promote the cultural exchanges between young people of two countries.
Lu Aihua, member of ZISU Party committee, Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission, and head of the delegation thanked for guests to attend. She said that in the past three years, ZISU is not only a beneficiary, but also an active practitioner of “Genuineness, Real Results, Affinity, and Sincerity” Africa foreign policy, which is put forward by Chairman Xi Jinping in 2013. Participation in Sino-Africa cultural exchanges, especially to perform in Liberia on behalf of the country is the highest honor of ZISU, and it is also an unforgettable experience of life for the 15 ZISU students, whose average age is less than 20 years old.
She expressed highest respect to present guests and the unsung hero who contributed to the performance, and expressed desire to love and cherish friendship with the African people, and the best wishes to jointly build a better future.
With the sound of gongs and drums, two lions pranced on the stage, and the venue suddenly bustled. With different strikes, Chinese calligraphy can express all sorts of images. Dance to the music “Dragon Calligraphy” convey modern Chinese people’s inheritance and insistence of calligraphy, the essence of traditional culture. When the Taijiquan encountered pipa, they bring out the best of each other by combining inner with outside, hardness with softness and showed a unique flavor of the "separated but not scattered, filled but not spilled". “Rhythms of Chinese Ink” interpreted the unique charm of classical dance, as if lead the audience into a world of flying Dunhuang murals. Erhu solo "a galloping horse" describes the scene of cavalry soldiers in the frontier of the motherland practice their skill to defend the motherland, the actor’s skilled technique and intoxicated state won applause from the audiences. "Spirit of Chinese Wushu" headed by teacher Li Zhiliang filled Nanquan, drunken, double knife, long sticks, fighting and other wonderful skills, which really marveled the Liberia audience, and pushed the show to a climax. Group dance "The vast grassland" incisively depicted Mongolia youth's passion and longing for a better life. Teacher He Feizhou impressed all the audience with the song "in that distant place", which made oversea Chinese more homesick and filled Liberian friends with yearning and love for China.
The teachers and students of Confucius Institute of Liberia University also carefully prepared programs. They performed poetry recitation "looking up at the starry sky", dance "Moonlight over the lotus pond" and a medley of songs “the loving family "" tomorrow will be better "and" grateful heart ", their performance is both static and dynamic, and combined singing and dancing performances to create a warm atmosphere, and won rounds of applause.
Zhang Yixin is senior student majoring in music, she undertook the task of leading dancer, dancer partner and on-site calligraphy performance. She said that when she shook hands with the President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and gave the “Genuineness, Real Results, Affinity, and Sincerity” calligraphy copybook to her, she suddenly had a feeling of being a glorious" Cultural Ambassador ". It is worthwhile to have two months’ hard rehearsing and performance with sickness. This tour has become the most shining experience of her college life. As a teacher-to-be, she will share her experience with students and show them a different Africa. The youngest member of the delegation is a 17 years old Portuguese major, Wang Xiaoyu. Though she has 12 years of dance experience, she had not thought she could perform on the stage in Africa even in her wildest dreams. The tour made her realized that the love of dance and professional learning does not conflict with each other, on the contrary, she increasingly felt that learning a foreign language is beneficial for her to communicate with foreign counterparts, and helps her to absorb the essence of foreign dance art, and achieve a better life of dance.
Teacher He Feizhou, both the director, host and an actor, said with emotion that the tour was an eye opener, although he was unfamiliar with the African friends to cooperate in every place, but African counterparts’ etiquette, sincerity and frankness let him deeply experienced that Africa and China are socially and artistically interlinked, and cultural similarities, artistic exchanges between Africa and China is very necessary and promising.
Since its departure on February the Delegation has visited four cities of Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Liberia in West Africa. Previously, under the support of the Confucius Institute of National University of Equatorial Guinea, the Confucius Institute of the Second University of Yaounde, Cameroon and the Confucius Institute of University of Liberia, the delegation has successfully finished 7 shows in Equatorial Guinea Pacific Group, Malaysia National Cultural Center, Cameroon Douala Bessie theater, Yaounde Le ghait international school, African Institute of Information, University of Liberia, transport company of Chinese peacekeepers to Liberia. Delegation adhered to the theme of “Genuineness, Real Results, Affinity, and Sincerity”, enhanced the African people's understanding of Chinese art and culture through the display of lion dance, martial arts, Chinese folk dance and other traditional talents, and expressed the beautiful wishes of Confucius Institute to promote multicultural development and build a harmonious world. Zhao Hongsheng , ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, and Wei Wenhua, Ambassador to Cameroon cordially met the delegation and watched the show.
In Africa, our team members overcame the difficulty of primitive performance conditions, hot and humid weather, travel fatigue, physical discomfort and other kinds of difficulties, they showed the charm of Oriental Art and Chinese youth upward spirit to the local audience with full enthusiasm, and won the audience's warm applause and cheers. The Tour became ZISU's live business card, and greatly enhanced the influence and popularity of ZISU in Africa, and many local students are showing the desire to study in ZISU.
Equatorial Guinea national television, national television of Cameroon and Liberia national television stations and other local media conducted special reports for this tour.
