After dinner, because Liu Wangxue had to get up early to go to the crew the next day, she and Gu Xuelan didn’t sit for long. They chatted for a while and then went home.
After washing up and watching a show with the three children, the mother and daughter called Liu Nanshan on video and chatted for nearly an hour.
After hanging up, Gu Xuelan asked: "What time is it over there? I don't know if she and Xiaoyu are celebrating the festival in Country Y."
Liu Wangxue didn't know whether it was a festival or not. She said, "The time difference is seven hours. It should be afternoon there now."
"How about calling her?" Gu Xuelan said and thought for a moment, "Forget it, let's not call her. What if she's busy? Wouldn't that disturb his work?"
"It's okay, Mom." Liu Wangxue knew Wenxi's habits very well. "If she's busy, she won't answer the call. If she answers the call, it means she's not busy."
As she spoke, she called Wenxi, who answered immediately: "Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!"
After Gu Xuelan expressed her concern, Liu Wangxue looked at the background and asked her, "Where are you? It looks like you're holding a cultural event?"
"That's right!" Wenxi said, using her mobile phone to show them the scene. "The Chinese Language and Literature Department and the Confucius Institute at the university where I teach co-organized a Mid-Autumn Festival themed cultural event today."
Zerlina invited Joshua first. Joshua had learned about the significance of these traditional festivals in Country Z during his two-week tour of the garden. So he gave the designers and staff from Country Z a day off and asked them to support Zerlina.
There's no need to prop up the venue because there are so many people coming to participate.
The Hanfu exhibition that Wenxi was invited to organize at the beginning of the year was quite successful and even made the front page of local news. The most direct benefit was that it had a positive impact on the enrollment of the Chinese School. At the same time, it also further strengthened the cooperation between the Chinese School and the Confucius Institute.
In June, the two sides cooperated to organize a cultural event for the Dragon Boat Festival. The scale was relatively small, but the participants gave it positive reviews.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is also a day for family reunion, and the meaning of the festival coincides with the local people's concept of family. Therefore, the two sides hit it off on their respective standpoints for holding this cultural event and successfully reached a cooperation. This event also received support from the school, so the scale was much larger than the last Dragon Boat Festival.
And the weather was nice too, it was a sunny day.
Many local residents also attended the event. The Chinese School also took this opportunity to hold an open day and sent invitations to some high schools.
The event began preparations more than a month in advance and included exhibitions, markets, cultural experiences and community performances.
When Wenxi came last time, she promised to sponsor a batch of Hanfu costumes for the Confucius Institute. The clothes arrived at the end of July, so this time they were used as props for the cultural experience.
The Confucius Institute has set up a simple changing room at the cultural experience venue. If participants are interested in Hanfu, they can go to the teacher to get a badge, change clothes and take photos.
While explaining to Liu Wangxue, Wen Xi went to the stall next door and bought two ice cream cones.
After chatting for a while, Liu Wangxue didn't see Li Yu, so she asked Wen Xi.
Wenxi raised the ice cream cone in her hand and said, "Here, here, one of them is for him."
She said, switching the camera.
Liu Wangxue then saw Li Yu trotting towards her with a youthful smile on his face. She almost had a vision of a sparkling little koi.
Gu Xuelan sighed, "It's only been a few days since I went out, and Xiaoyu seems to have become a different person. Well, if you have the conditions, you should go out more often to see the world."
Li Yu took the cone from Wen Xi and said, "Thank you, Sister Wen Xi."
Wenxi turned the camera back and appeared in the camera with Li Yu. After seeing clearly, Li Yu greeted with surprise and joy.
Liu Wangxue smiled and teased him, "Oh, who is this little British prince? I almost didn't recognize him, did I, Mom?"
"Yes, our Xiaoyu has become handsome again." Gu Xuelan also replied with a smile. She originally wanted to say "beautiful", but she felt that Li Yu might not like it, so she changed it to "handsome".
Li Yu was still a little shy after being praised. He scratched his face, smiled shyly, and took a bite of the ice cream ball.
He was just collecting stamps at the cultural experience venue.
There are some hands-on experience projects, such as paper cutting, Chinese painting, calligraphy, rope weaving, making snow skin moon cakes, etc., which everyone can participate in; there are also some projects that require a certain amount of Chinese knowledge to participate, such as radical spelling games, guessing word puzzles, and reciting ancient poems.
Participants first receive a mini notebook at the entrance. For each item completed, they will receive a postmark of a famous scenic spot in a province or city in Country Z.
Li Yu had never participated in a similar event in China, so he was very interested and collected all the postmarks in one go.
The two of them ate ice cream cones and walked towards the stage. Wenxi said that he wanted to take Liu Wangxue to watch the performance of local students.
The brochure in her hand contained the program, and she read it to Liu Wangxue.
"There's even traditional opera?" Liu Wangxue suspected that she had heard it wrongly. "Are their courses so rich?"
Forget about Peking Opera, the pronunciation of its singing and recitation has many similarities or similarities with modern Mandarin. But there is also Yue Opera performance, and the Wu dialect itself is equivalent to a foreign language.
Liu Wangxue felt that these students were really amazing!
Wenxi replied: "No, I heard from Zerlina that they will have a cultural experience class for the second grade, but it will only give students a general understanding of these things. If they like it, they can find a way to learn it themselves."
Gu Xuelan asked her: "Isn't the Confucius Institute responsible for cultural dissemination? Don't they offer this kind of course? Why do they let students figure it out on their own?"
"I guess it won't work." Liu Wangxue said, "Mom, think about it, how many schools in our country offer this kind of course? How many people really like it and are willing to learn it, not to mention that it's abroad?"
Wenxi said: "This is just one of the reasons. The most important point is the lack of teachers. I talked to a teacher from the Confucius Institute this morning. What they lack most now is talents with special skills."
As she spoke, she brought her phone closer and whispered, "I went to take a look at the project at the experience site just now. As for the level of the teacher in charge, I tell you the truth, you can do it too."
"Is it true?" Liu Wangxue didn't believe it.
Wenxi put his arm around Li Yu's neck and pulled him closer: "If you don't believe me, ask Xiaoyu."
Li Yu was crunching the rest of his cone. Although it wasn't nice to say that, he still nodded honestly, just like the Chinese painting teacher.
Li Yu had also learned a little bit before, and he said: "The teacher's paintings can at best fool laymen who know nothing about it."
“And the rope weaving,” Wenxi added, “is just like an elementary school student.”
"Then should I still look forward to the next stage performance?" Liu Wangxue asked.
Wenxi said: "This is still worth looking forward to. Zerlina showed me the students' rehearsal videos. Anyway, from the perspective of an outsider like me, the level is quite high."
As they walked and talked, they arrived at the stage. Unfortunately, they missed the opera performance. Liu Wangxue and Gu Xuelan watched a sword dance and Tai Chi.
Gu Xuelan commented: "Don't mention it, it really looks like it."
Chit-chat Once the Confucius Institute held a cultural experience camp, and a teacher taught Chinese painting, painting bamboo in ink.
I went to join in the fun and learned from him, and the result was better than the teacher's drawing...
Because of the shortage of teachers, the teacher was also learning on the spot. She pointed at me and said to her students: "Yes, yes, that's how she draws!"
Then I was forced to do something... ——There is also a stingy dean who has a special liking for dumplings
The frozen dumplings sold in Chinese restaurants here are relatively expensive. He likes to eat them but can't afford to buy them, so he takes advantage of the Confucius Institute's activities to satisfy his appetite.
No matter what kind of festival or event, he always cooks dumplings.
Please note that it is "boiled dumplings"
If other Confucius Institutes hold such activities, they usually organize students to "make dumplings", but he asked teachers to buy frozen dumplings and bring them to the venue to "cook" them.
I remember one time during the Dragon Boat Festival, he wanted to cook dumplings again. The teachers hated dumplings so much that they didn’t want to make any.
The dean made up a cultural custom out of nothing: "Why not eat dumplings? Dumplings are the way to eat on the Dragon Boat Festival!"
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