To mark the coming fifth anniversary of Padua Confucius Institute and the world's first "Confucius Institute Day", a series of celebration activities such as cultural lectures, Chinese language and Chinese food experience were successfully held in Padua University, which was widely commended by teachers, students and local people.
On September 24th, the Chinese brush calligraphy lecture, with the theme of "from writing to calligraphy, beauty evolves out of single lines”, kicked off the celebrations. Professor Pier Luca Benini, an Italian sinologist, described the process of Chinese calligraphy development and made a holistic analysis of the artistic beauty demonstrated in different fonts such as Oracle, hieroglyphs, cursive, Seal, official script etc. Calligraphy competition were organized on site and outstanding works were reviewed and presented to the public.
On September 26th, Professor Zhang Chongqi from our university launched another cultural lecture with the theme of "change the reading habits of young Chinese in the network environment” in the Confucius Institute. In addition to the lecture, Chinese ancient poetry and modern prose recitation activities were also included in the celebration activities. Owing to the efforts of previous activities, a group of Italian friends gathered in Padua to appreciate Chinese poetry. They traveled a long distance to listen and recite poetry together with professors from theUniversityofPadua, and cultural officials from Montegrotto. The audiences were deeply intoxicated, applauses burst out now and then.
What’s more, two interactive, relaxing cultural activities were specially arranged to open up new channels for the spread of Chinese culture andto help local people experience a full range of Chinese language and culture. One activity was to teach local children to speak Chinese, recognize and read Chinese characters, sing Chinese songs, hold chopsticks and make dumplings, fully exposed the Chinese culture. The Confucius Institute also held another special cultural event about Chinese tea and food with the support of Mr. Sandro, on September 27th, the global "Confucius Institute Day." Every participant enjoyed delicious dim sum and tea and grew enchanted by our oriental charm.
It should be noted that this series of activities was reported in the "Confucius Institute Day" column of Confucius Institute Headquarter for its success in organizing various cultural activities. Padua Confucius Institute has become one of the representatives inItaly.
Contributed by the Confucius Institute in the University of Padua
Chinese Editor: Wu Qian
English Editor: Peng Nianfan
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