The 2018 Confucius Institute Day celebration
On the 28th of September 2018, the Confucius Institute Day celebration, sponsored by the Confucius Institute Headquarters/Haban, was hosted by the Confucius Institute at University of Ghana, Legon. The Institute decided to mark this year’s celebrations with a new activity which was a Chinese chorus competition. The celebration attracted many local people as well as the Chinese in Ghana. The entire auditorium was so packed that a part of the audience had to stand to watch the various performances.
The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Wang Shiting, commended the Institute at the University for its immense contribution to the spreading of Chinese culture as well as the strengthening of the friendship ties between China and Ghana while he delivered his speech. Also, he reiterated his willingness to provide the necessary assistance for the development of the Confucius Institute at the University of Ghana.
Also present was Samuel Agyei-Mensah, the Provost of College of Humanities and the representative of Profeessor who expressed his gratitude to the Chinese Embassy and the Confucius Institute for their work and pledged his support to the teaching of the Chinese language and culture in Ghana.
Among the speakers was the student representative of University of Ghana Basic school who spoke profoundly about the students’ love and dedication for the Chinese language and culture and their gratitude to the Confucius Institute.
At this year’s celebrations, five choirs from the following schools competed: University of Ghana Basic School, the Christ Union Academy School, Nouvel Community Academy, and Blessed Home School & Crèche. In their quest to deliver excellent performances, the choirs prepared extensively from April until day of the performance and the songs they sang beautifully were Invisible Wings, Blue Lotus, I believe, and Friends. When the audience listened to these Chinese songs, they were very impressed by the genuineness of the children’s performances.
Besides, the contest were other guest performances like Beauty of Qipao, a dance by the Chinese Department of the University, I want to go to school and Three Character Primer by AI-Rayan International School.
Then there was the amazing piano performance by a Confucius Institute’s student who played Goodbye. The champion of the Chinese song contest last year, Tiantian, crowned the occasion with her performance of the Dream flower song.
Aside the above listed performances, the teaching sites of the Confucius Institute also brought their own Chinese learning results under the theme of “Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day”. These Chinese learning results included not only the writing of Chinese characters and paintings of China, but also the performance of cultural lessons such as Chinese incense, calligraphy and tea art. At the same time, there were also students who performed Chinese incense, calligraphy and tea art. Ultimately, many viewers also participated in the occasion and felt the charm of Chinese traditional culture together with the students. Other students introduced Chinese traditional costumes, weapons and mahjong to the audience. The Chinese ambassador was stunned at the unusual ability and exquisiteness with which Chinese cultures were displayed by the Ghanaian participants and could just not stop praising them.
