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The 2010 Chinese Language and Culture Winter Camp for Chinese Teenagers from Southeast Asia Closed

The 2010 Chinese Language and Culture Winter Camp for Chinese Teenagers from Southeast Asia Closed

Write: Lisle [2011-05-20]

Members of the Winter Camp, with strong emotional ties to China, were reluctant to leave Hunan.

On the afternoon of January 5, the closing ceremony of the 2010 Chinese Language and Culture Winter Camp for Chinese Teenagers from Southeast Asia, organized by Culture and Education Ministry of China Overseas Exchange Association, co-organized by Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Hunan Province, undertaken by International College of Chinese Language and Culture in Hunan Normal University, was held in the multifunctional hall of Changsha Tongcheng Lushan Hotel, accompanied with excellence performance. Here the fifteen-day Winter Camp was over.

Leaders seated in the rostrum included Zhang Dingguo, deputy director of Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Hunan Province; Jiang Hongxin, Vice-president of Hunan Normal University; Tang Cunzhong, Deputy Chief of Office of International Exchange and Cooperation; Yang Ling, Dean of International College of ChineseLanguage and Culture of Hunan Normal University; and Shen Min, assistant to the dean.

At first, leaders and guests present awarded Certificates of Completion to members of Winter Camp. Next, Lu Huilan, representative of camp members, as well as two teachers Liu Zhen and Zhen Shengdi, representatives of guides, who, having profited greatly from the activities, gave speeches successively in brief overviews about conditions of studies and lives during those 15 days and extended thanks to teachers and volunteers for their meticulous organization and hard work.

Sun Hanping from International College of Chinese Language and Culture, on behalf of course teachers in the Camp, reviewed the fifteen-day s study of Chinese language and Chinese culture, savoring its happiness and success with every member and guide. She hoped everyone in the camp had harvested wonderful memories in beautiful Hunan.

Yang Ling summarized the Winter Camp as follows: Firstly, she conveyed her congratulations on the success of the Winter Camp and expressed her gratitude to related institutions, leaders, teachers and volunteers for their supports. Secondly, she highly praised every camp member for their courage to overcome difficulties, their diligence and eagerness to learn knowledge as well as their positive attitude towards life, hoping that members and guides of the camp could act as freshdrive to transmit and enrich the fine cultural heritage of China and enhance the cultural cohesion of China. Finally, she wished members from Indonesia and Thailand a good journey and welcomed them should they go back again to Hunan.

When the ceremony came to an end, all participants in Winter Camp from Southeast Asia exchanged gifts with Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Hunan Province and relevant departments of HunanNormalUniversity.

An excellent performance, following to the closing ceremony, was staged. The opening dance Good Start was performed by course teachers in the Winter Camp. They, with waving fans and red ribbons, danced so beautifully that the show ignited loud applause from Chinese teenagers in the Camp and warmed up the atmosphere. Later, members from Bandung and Bali in Indonesia, Songkhla and Chiang Mai in Thailand, etc played hip-hop and folk dances, displaying not only their youth and vitality but also the distinguished national art of Southeast Asia. One of another highlight of the party was members recitation of Tang Dynastic poem and performances of Chinese songs, and martial arts and so on, which were arranged according to what they had learnt about Chinese culture with the help of teachers and volunteers. At the end of the party, all the people present sang in union The Same Song to show their unwillingness to part.

I don t want to go home. What I want is to stay here to study Chinese language and Chinese culture. After all, here is my home too. Zhou Ziling, a senior-three student from Thailand, who had been in China three times and hoped to get the full scholarship to study in China, voiced the common thought of 120 members in the Winter Camp. She, together with other Chinese Teenagers from Southeast Asia, spent half a month studying Chinese culture, martial arts and folk dances, visiting Zhang Jiajie, Yueyang Tower, Provincial Museum, and getting together with students of attached middle school of HNU.

According to the introduction of Ye Lijiao, a student advisor from Bali in Indonesia, we knew that in spite of some difficulties and challenges, Chinese Language education has been booming in recent years in Indonesia. Courses of Chinese Language are opened in the first year of primary school. After the third year, 10 to 14 lessons about Chinese Language will be given each week. During middle school, the course of Chinese Language becomes a compulsory course, not a selective one.

Liu Shuheng, a student advisor from Indonesia with an age of over sixties, who had come to China 6 times and organized teenagers to China 3 times, said that culture was the power source of a nation and the foundation to preserve characters of a nation. He hoped Chinese young men abroad would know more about Chinese history and culture and shoulder the responsibility to spread our Chinese culture around the world.

Our university became the base of Chinese Language education of Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council since 2003 and has undertaken 8 winter camps and 3summer camps during those 7 years, establishing a brand at home and abroad, especially in Southeast Asia.

(Translated by Zeng JianEdited by Yu Liya)