"Chinese Day" Activities Held by Padova Confucius Institute Made A Hit at the “Padova Multi-ethnic Cultural Festival”

Guangzhou University, May 28, 2013:On May 26, "Chinese Day" activities, held by Padova Confucius Institute, greatly appealed to the incoming visitors in the 23th “Festa dei Popoli a Padova” (the local multi-ethnic cultural festival) with varied and versatile performances. Mr. Xu Junzhong, Vice President of our university, attended the event.

The event, held on Padova's famous Celebrity Square (Prato della Valle), was divided into two sections:"stand display" and "stage performance". "Stand Display" brought the visitors to intimate contact with Chinese traditional culture and art: Chinese textbooks, Chinese classroom experience, calligraphy competitions, traditional stationery, ethnic clothing display, percussion performances, folk singing, traditional musical instruments, Taiji, paper cutting and tea ceremony performances. Chinese and Italian national flags, red lanterns and Chinese knots jointly brought forth a festive atmosphere out of the fair. "Stage Performance", featured with male solo, zither playing and fashion catwalk, aroused the sentiment of audience, and from time to time waves of warm applause broke out.

“‘Chinese Day’ activities provides a platform to allow more international friends to understand our country and language” , commented by Professor Xu Junzhong in a press interview. Mr. Xia Jingwen, member of Padova city council, commended the efforts of Padova Chinese Confucius Institute and Venice Overseas Chinese Association, and he strongly believed that the participation of Confucius Institute could upgrade this cultural festival.

“Padova Multi-ethnic Cultural Festival (Festa dei Popoli a Padova)”, stemmed from 1991, was an annual municipal event, striving to “ spread the value of different culture, demand for peace, deepen the dialogue between peoples, and promote legal and human rights awareness” , while our “Chinese Day ”, as a key project of the National Hanban, sought to suffice this objective and was proved to be a new and worthwhile attempt by achieving international cultural understanding and promoting Chinese language education.

Written by Bai Xiaoli from Padova Confucius College

Translated by Peng Nianfan