On January 23 by local time, experiencing activities of traditional Chinese festival “Spring Festival” were held in Confucius Institute at the Diplomatic University of DRC. Close to one hundred of people, including Anger Lally Ladzubu, member of CI council, Bakatula Marie Madeleine Nzuzi, the director of CI and representatives from MASANBA school, LINK school and Chinese agencies, participated in this activity.

The event started with a Chinese song “happy New Year” performed by all the students of CI. Later, teachers explained the origin, customs and common blessing languages of the Spring Festival, helping students to understand the deeper meaning of “family” and “reunion” in traditional Chinese culture.

Calligraphy experiencing, paper-cutting and chopsticks-use teaching in the garden party brought the climax of this activity. Local people joined in and tried writing the character “fu” (meaning good fortune) by brush in calligraphy-experiencing as well as cutting papers into the shape of character “chun” (meaning spring).

The volunteers put on an erhu (a kind of Chinese musical instrument) performance and the activity ended in a beautiful chorus song “Tomorrow Will Be Better”.

This activity provided the participants a brand new experience of celebrating Chinese New Year and enhanced their understanding of Chinese language and culture. The CI at Diplomatic University shall carry out more cultural understanding programs and build a platform for cultural exchanges.