Whilst it rained with ice balls in Northern Ireland only a few days ago, people in China have already turned to ice-creams for the cool taste. More popular than the tastes are perhaps the variety of shapes of ice-creams that resemble those local features and places of interest. Here’s what Xuewei YANG (杨雪薇), a QUB alumnus, brings to us.
While many of you may be familiar with this pun-loaded greeting from the Star Wars, Chinese people, especially the youth, have their own special celebration on the day.
Continue readingMay (the) Fourth n. (also 4 May, etc.) Chinese History (attributive) designating or relating to a demonstration held by students in Peking (Beijing) on 4 May 1919 to protest against the Chinese government’s failure to oppose the decision by the Versailles Peace Committee to allocate Germany’s former possessions in China to Japan; (also) designating the wider cultural and intellectual revolution in China for which this demonstration is generally regarded as having been a catalyst; esp. in May (the) Fourth Movement.
Oxford English Dictionary
In keeping with the themes of inclusivity and cultural exchange, the song was written as a collaboration between Chinese music producer Kelvin Ho, British author Robert Murray and Belgian composer Jean-Francois Maljean who wrote ‘Chime of the Dawn Bells’. It has been performed in Chinese by British artists Phoebe Haines and Freddie Benedict.
To hear this beautiful tune, subscribe to our channel on YouTube (Chinese Language Video Festival)
Chinese Language Festival Video (Youtube)
Don’t miss out the video competition taking place on the day! You can watch it via the Youtube link above. You can also view the Chinese website with many more details and videos via CCTV.
We would also like to invite you to join our culture talk on the topic of supporting international students, delivered by Dr Aisling O’Boyle and Dr Xuezi Han this Friday 23rd April 2021.
Happy World Table Tennis Day! 国际乒乓球日快乐 (Guójì Pīngpāngqiú Rì Kuàilè)！
Did you know that World Table Tennis Day is celebrated annually on 6th April since 2015, which also marks the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace?
Did you know that table tennis, or 乒乓球 (pīngpāngqiú) in Chinese, is considered the national game in China? And did you know that Chinese has become sort of a common language (unofficially) that many top players of the world are using it, especially at international games? Did you know why table tennis play shouted ‘cho’ at their match?
Actually ‘cho’ is not the Chinese spelling of the pronunciation, instead, it should be ‘ 球 (qiú)‘ which means ball. In its more complete sense it should be ‘好球 (hǎo qiú)’ – lit. good ball (good point, well played) – in Chinese, a typical way of cheering for themselves when scoring. 好 (hǎo) tends to give a weak sound in the syllable and it is often omitted in competitions. So, shouting ‘球 (qiú)’ or ‘cho’ has become a fashion and trend in many international table tennis matches where Chinese players compete.
Then, how to encourage players in a competition, especially when they are in great difficulties, in Chinese? Here are some simple phrases for you to grasp:
Did you also know that at Queen’s we have a QUB Table Tennis Team (multinational) and there used to be a Chinese team of students and staff members? If they played against each other, which team do you hope to win? Learn how to express hope in Chinese now:
So, which team do you hope to win? Give your answer by using the structure and phrases above and get some practice.
Of course, in many games, we just want to play for fun and to develop friendship. So in this context, we would say ‘friendship first, competition second’ – 友谊第一，比赛第二 (yǒuyì dì yī, bǐsài dì èr).
Finally, we hope that you will like table tennis game and join us for fun at some time.
Reminder: Registration will close promptly at 17:00 on Thursday 15 April. Classes are expected to be extremely popular and usually fill up quickly, so early registration is strongly recommended.
Calling all our learners of Chinese at Queen’s
The first ever Chinese Language Video Festival has been launched to celebrate this year’s United Nations Chinese Language Day.
The festival gives foreigners from across the world the opportunity to enter a competition by submitting a video that celebrates Chinese culture.
Entrants are invited to submit original videos that showcase Chinese calligraphy, Chinese poetry, as well as Chinese culinary culture by recalling their own stories or narrating memories related to spring time.
From CGTN
The video works can include but not limited to the following themes and topics showcasing:
In addition to the aforementioned topics, candidates can also choose to record their videos by telling their own stories or narrating pieces of memory related to springtime. The format can be flexible, candidates can make their videos through talent show, storytelling, scientific knowledge explanation or Chinese language challenge games etc, as long as the video works are original.
Timetable
The competition is open to all foreigners who love the Chinese culture and language and who have been learning the Chinese language.
Registration is open until promptly at 17:00 on Thursday 15 April. Classes are expected to be extremely popular and usually fill up quickly, so early registration is strongly recommended.
All classes will commence week beginning Monday 19 April 2021. All language courses will comprise of online practice activities, pre-class videos and weekly, live online teaching, delivered by a tutor to groups of no more than 20 learners. Courses will last for 10 weeks, with 1 x 90 minute live online teaching session each week.
Aims:
Preparation:
国际妇女节快乐 (Guójì Fùnǚjié kuàilè)！
International Women’s Day is held on 8th March each year and is a global day which celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It is a day to mark a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Worldwide, groups and organisations come together to celebrate women’s achievements or to rally for women’s equality.
From Queen’s Gender Initiative
On Friday 5th March, we hosted the last event of CNY2021 celebration, Panel Discussion – The joy of women artists with brush pens during lockdown, which also marked the celebration of International Women’s Day. We were glad that a wide audience of Queen’s students, staff members and members of the public were positively engaged with the artists, sharing their excellent exhibition as well as their positive life attitude.
We would also like to express our heart-felt thanks to you who have been engaged, as both contributors and audience, with our CNY celebrations starting from the paper crafts workshop, through the Launch day event featuring performance and a guest talk on Great Books of China, followed by a two-week-long culture forum talks from an array of interesting topics delivered by scholars and research students from across a range of disciplines and diverse cultural backgrounds.
All the recorded talks, including the ArtEast exhibition and discussion, coupled with flashcards of Chinese as language input, are uploaded online for reviewing. We hope this will encourage continuation of such conversations.
Finally, while we are in preparation for our future events, we may wish that the Year of the Ox brings us strength and success!
Our CNY2021 QUBLC-ArtEast exhibition provides a cloud space for you to appreciate a selection of paintings from the Art East ladies created during the lockdown period.
It’s amazing that they have kept so positive and productive using their magic brush pens. We hope this exhibition will bring you a different feel towards life and the surroundings.
While this exhibition is ongoing we would like to invite you to join our online panel discussion on 05/03 with the ladies to share their painting perspectives and practice, as well as their positive attitude towards life and art. In particular, we would like to see your vote on the best paintings from each of the artists (e.g. Jing-001, LLi-001, Zhang-001, JLi-001) to match against their own picks in the comment box at the bottom of the exhibition page.
This event also marks the celebration of the International Women’s Day (8th March) which has the theme ‘Choose to Challenge’ this year. Feel free to share on your social media using #ChooseToChallenge #IWD2021.
For more IWD-themed events at Queen’s, please visit Queen’s Gender Initiative page.
The CNY2021 celebration programme has reached its second height with a full programme of inviting talks prepared by scholars and research students from across a range of disciplines and diverse cultural backgrounds.
Following the Guest Talk delivered by Dr Frances Wood on 12th February, this week we have enjoyed two interesting talks delivered by Qingying Lin, Queen’s graduate and now an MRCI-AHSS China Media Digital Assistant, and Ye Tian, PhD candidate in Translation from School of Arts, English and Languages.
In the coming week (22nd – 26th February) we welcome you to attend a week-long programme of culture talks, featuring:
Thanks for many of you who joined in our CNY2021 celebration launch event last Friday. It was a great opportunity for us to get together in a different way to previous years, and it was great fun being with you! In particular, we would like to thank the volunteers who performed for us, and Dr Frances Wood who shared an interesting and inviting topic on Great Books of China. We hope you all have enjoyed it!
If you missed it, you can view the main parts of the programme via the following link.
At the launch we proudly introduced two exhibitions – the ArtEast Exhibition and Sir Robert Hart Exhibition, both of which are freely accessible online for your appreciation. The ArtEast exhibition will end with an online panel discussion on Friday 5th March. Your thoughts and comments are welcome and we look forward to seeing you in the panel discussion.
Our CNY Culture Forum 2021 will start from Tuesday 16th February until Friday 26th February, covering a wide range of topics shared by scholars and students from AHSS and EPS. You are mostly welcome to join in some sessions, if not all, to enrich conversations within our multicultural campus. We also welcome more people to contribute to the Chinese Culture Forum which remains an ongoing platform of sharing knowledge and enhancing intercultural communication. For full details and registration, click the button below.
