On Sunday 29th January the Ulster Museum will hosts this event including a selection of ArtEast NI members’ paintings displayed at the hall area from 12 pm on, and a talk/panel discussion at 2 pm on their themes, styles, and techniques, as well as their attitudes towards challenging lives throughout the pandemic period. There will also be an interactive workshop from 3 pm to encourage audience, especially those families with kids, to have some hands-on practice (e.g. painting, calligraphy, paper crafts) under the guidance of the artists.
The Language Centre has been proactively leading a number of language and culture-associated events, including the branded Chinese New Year celebrations, at Queen’s for years and we are looking to further engaging with students, staff members, as well as members of the public, to enable better inclusion and interaction.
To welcome the Year of the Rabbit (starting from Sun 22nd January 2023), we would like to invite you to join in this CNY2023 Drawing Competition with the theme of the Rabbit (Chinese character: 兔, pronounced as tù, similar to ‘too/two’). We believe that the image of rabbit is widely used in many arts forms, literatures, and modern designs in both Chinese and many other cultures, though the cultural connotations vary from one to another.
The drawing styles can be of any medium (such as sketching, oils, watercolour, sculpture, etc.) so long as they represent and reflect on your perceptions of the rabbit in your own or Chinese culture. All forms and techniques of presentation are encouraged.
The competition starts from the date when it is advertised and will close on Friday 13th January 2023. The finished drawings (one drawing each participant) should be saved as an electronic copy (JEPG/JPG format, max. 2MB) and emailed as an attachment to Dr Liang WANG at Liang.Wang@qub.ac.uk, using ‘CNY2023 Drawing Competition’ in the subject line. In the email, please briefly include a bio, including your name, your status (e.g. educational/professional background) and the illustration of your idea on the presentation.
All the entries will be uploaded online for exhibition. A judge panel will make a decision on the result which will be announced shortly after the closing date. The winners’ drawings may be used for further promotional purposes with acknowledgement. Prizes will be subsequently given out for collection.
Congratulations to the winners: Yilin CAO (曹意琳), Fangzhou YANG (杨方舟), Ya LI (李亚) for their Documentary ‘The Gift Tree‘!
About the prize
Anjool Maldé (7 July 1984 – 5 July 2009)Anjool Maldé Memorial Trust
Anjool Maldé (Jools to his friends and colleagues) […] lived a short but rich life, […] who touched so many lives in special, endearing and enduring ways.
Anjool Maldé Award is as a legacy to Jools’ memory, the Anjool Maldé Memorial Trust (The AMMT) awards prize money to the UK’s brightest best to reward, inspire and celebrate outstanding talent.
Co-hosting the Anjool Maldé Young Journalist Award, Queen’s University Belfast has jointly hosted the award ceremony at Queen’s Film Theatre to three Chinese students – Yilin CAO, Fangzhou YANG, Ya LI – all from School of Arts, English and Languages, majoring in Media and Broadcast Production.
About the Documentary
The documentary, ‘The Gift Tree‘, tells the story of Belfast’s ‘One Million Trees‘ environmental programme against the backdrop of Net-Zero Carbon Belfast plan. We made this documentary with the hope that it can reflect the value of a Net-Zero Carbon city and the need to protect the environment, thus calling on everyone to contribute to environmental protection.
Yilin, Fangzhou and Ya
In retrospect, the winners felt proud of being able to participate in, and contribute to, the competition that Queen’s University is involved in as a co-host. They further explained:
At one point, we saw an advertisement for admissions at Queen’s University, reporting that a student had won the award. This news aroused our great interest in choosing Queen’s for this course. We were really really amazed at seeing our names written on the award certificate this year. To be honest, being international students, producing a documentary and winning the prize takes a lot more effort than any home students will do because of the language barrier and communication across cultures. We had to get to know the places as quickly as possible, find the right people for interviews and understand and select the stories that deserve to be told, which we hadn’t built up in our experiences before. We were really thrilled when we finished the documentary. We are delighted to have won the 2022 Anjool Maldé Journalism Award for our documentary, thanks to the hard work of the three of us and the guidance of our supervisors and teaching assistants.
Winners as above with Dr Kurt Taroff (Head of School of Arts, English and Languages) and Frank Delaney (Subject Lead for Broadcast Production). Photo courtesy QUB.
Winners as above with Dr Kurt Taroff (Head of School of Arts, English and Languages) and Frank Delaney (Subject Lead for Broadcast Production). Photo courtesy QUB.
Certificate of Excellence – Anjool Maldé Journalism Award 2022
As well as collaborating on this documentary, the three of us are also very good friends in life. Although we have shared expertise in film production, we have diverse areas of specialism, which has served us well in the making of the documentary. Together we completed the shooting plan and the subsequent editing of the entire documentary, including but not limited to on-site interviews, video shooting, drone shooting, video production, script editing, post-editing, music and sound effects production. This is our learning practice in MA Media and Broadcast Production at Queen’s University Belfast. The process of making this documentary enabled us to gain a wealth of practical experience in documentary production. The honour of receiving the Anjool Maldé Journalism Award is the best proof our efforts and a testament to the value of this work.
The Anjool Maldé Journalism Award means a lot to the three of us. It’s a recognition of our abilities and a huge motivation for us to continue with the industry of media production. Bearing this in mind, in the future we will shoulder responsibility as media workers and journalists and continue to explore valuable stories and express them in the best form of media.
Yilin, Fangzhou and Ya
Watch the Documentary
Thanks to Yilin, Fangzhou and Ya’s kind offer, we would like to share with you all the documentary ‘The Gift Tree’ for appreciation. If you have any thoughts, ideas, and comments regarding the producers and the documentary, please leave your message in the box below. We are happy to pass it on to the contributors.
With the approaching of the new semester we are pleased to announce that the Language Centre course enrolment starts at 00:30 on Thursday 1st September. We offer over 80 classes in 14 different languages, including Chinese, that have both online and in person teaching. All classes will commence week beginning Monday 10 Oct 2022.
Online registration will be closed on Thursday 6 Oct and we welcome all to make an early registration as courses are extremely popular and fill up quickly.
We are looking for talented students and staff members to volunteer for our Chinese language and cultural events at Queen’s. It could be in the form of a variety of cultural performances, or language/culture-related topics and skills, and is open to both Chinese-speaking and non-Chinese speaking volunteers.
We look forward to working with you in our future events.
Happy September and happy Mid-Autumn Festival which arrives early, falling on Saturday 10th September this year. 中秋节快乐 (Zhōngqiūjié kuàilè)!
Following the successful rolling out of the iRise Social and Wellbeing Event – A Taste of Chinese Tea with Guzheng Music in July, we would like to invite you to join our Mid-Autumn Festival celebration with a cultural talk on its history and social impact, with a taste of mooncakes (赏月 shǎng yuè) and MIDI keyboard performance (赏乐 shǎng yuè) –
MIDI Keyboard with Roses
Organised by The Language Centre and BAME & International Staff Network, QUB
Presented by Dr Liang Wang, The Language Centre
Contributed by Kehan (可瀚), BSc candidate in Music and Audio Production, School of Arts, English and Languages
Date: Friday 23rd September 2022 Time: 15:30 – 17:00 Venue: The Auditorium, McClay Library
Please note: Due to rescheduling we may have some limited spaces available. For colleagues who signed up for the event and still can attend, you don’t need to do it again. However, if you are no longer able to attend in-person, please email liang.wang[at]qub.ac.uk so that places can be made to others. Please register by 4.00pm on Thursday 22nd September.
Welcome to the BAME&I Social and Wellbeing Event that aim to provide a space for staff members and students to meet and network, share knowledge and enrich intercultural experiences.
This event presents a taster session of Chinese tea culture with an appreciation of guzheng performance.
Organised by BAME&I Staff Network Facilitated by Dr Liang Wang, The Language Centre Contributed by Wei DENG and Fengting LIAO
Date: Thursday 23rd June 2022 Time: 15:30 – 17:30 Venue: The Auditorium, McClay Library
Hooray! The biggest film festival for Chinese cinema of the year in Europe has landed in the UK, with a rich programme of films and events starting from 10th May until 10th June!
According to the UK-China Film Collab (英中电影合作研发中心), the presenter of Odyssey: a Chinese cinema season –
From 10th May to 10th June 2022, with more than 60 films in 8 curated sections, 10 panel discussions and many inspiring Q&A sessions, we will bring you a whole month of outstanding and innovative Chinese cinema that promises to illuminate your mind. The festival will not only introduce the latest young Chinese film talents to the UK audience, but also provide forums for professionals to exchange creativity and business ideas.
While many of the events will take place in London and Edinburgh, there are a good many online events and films that one can choose to attend, some of which are free. Below are the highlights for local Chinese community and fans of Chinese films in Northern Ireland.
Neo Horizon: The Audience Award
As audience, you are invited to view the six selected films for free and vote for the Audience Award, starting from 10th May. Don’t miss out!
This is a great opportunity to enjoy some classic Chinese animated films of different eras and art styles while learning about the history of Chinese animation.
During the month-long China Cinema Season, there will also be ten online discussion panels, exploring aspects of UK-China film collaboration and other topics such as regional cinemas and the role of female film programmers in China.
Welcome to join us in a unique traditional music tour between Chinese and Irish music
Following the success of the joint Celtic-Chinese performance for the Chinese New Year celebration organised by the Language Centre and BAME & International Staff Network, we are delighted to run a showcase of Chinese and Irish performance for all Queen’s staff, students and the general public, as part of the Development Week Programme at Queen’s.
This showcase and recital will introduce two popular Chinese traditional instruments, Dizi (笛子 dízi) and Guzheng (古筝 gǔzhēng) focusing on the playing techniques, in comparison with the local Irish harp (竖琴 shùqín) and flute (长笛 chángdí) playing practice. We will talk about the historical, social and regional styles and invite the audience to join the discussion, hand-on practice and the playing session.
Zexuan QIAO and Wei DENG performing for the CNY celebration recording at the Great Hall. Images@LiangWANG
Traditional music plays a very important role in people’s life in Ireland. Local people in Northern Ireland not only appreciate their own music, but also the diverse music from a wide range of different cultures, including the Chinese community. Chinese traditional music has been under revival since the early 20th century with a second boom from the 1970s onward.
Date: Saturday 28 May 2022 Time: 2 – 4 pm Venue: Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC), Cloreen Park, Belfast BT9 5HN Full details and registration
In 1982 the Dance Committee of ITI founded International Dance Day to be celebrated every year on the 29th April, the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), creator of modern ballet. The intention of the International Dance Day Message is to celebrate dance, revel in the universality of this art form, cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers, and bring people together with a common language – dance.
To view the online performances, click the link above in the Quote.
Dancing at Queen’s
Queen’s is a multicultural campus with talented students from local and global areas that are well known for their distinctive cultural life, including dances. Chinese students, the largest international student community at Queen’s, has contributed a lot of fantastic dance performances, enriching the multicultural campus life.
On this special day (29th April), we invite Shiya GU (古诗雅), a talented dancer and currently postgraduate student in Arts Management from School of Arts, English and Languages, to share her life with dancing.
“Thanks to the Arts Management Placement opportunity, I am really fortunate that I’ve been involved in the Youth Dance Company (YDC) Project at the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast, and it is a great thing to learn from both local and international dancers. I’m looking forward to meeting many more talented dancers coming from outside of Northern Ireland in the future.”
‘I am so lucky and grateful to have been awarded the opportunity to perform and challenge myself in different types of dance. Dancing has been my genuine interest for over 20 years, from curiosity to career, and I have been changing my roles in the field of dance with dedication and passion.’
‘To me, dancing is a belief and a mission for dancers or people who love dancing. No matter where we are, as long as we have our willfulness and willingness, we can always free our bodies through dancing and express what we want.’
In the past, we have also enjoyed many excellent dance performances on campus. Here is a collection of some photos to share the great memory with you. If you have photos of yourselves performing dances or being an audience, feel free to share with us by leaving your message in the reply box below.
Did you buy some eggs or egg-shaped chocolate for Easter? They look so cute and tasty that one can hardly resist the temptation not to buy one.
Chocolate eggs in a supermarket. Image@LiangWANG
But why it has to be eggs or egg-shaped thing during Easter? Here’s the explanation:
‘The egg, an ancient symbol of new life, has been associated with pagan festivals celebrating spring. From a Christian perspective, Easter eggs are said to represent Jesus’ emergence from the tomb and resurrection. Decorating eggs for Easter is a tradition that dates back to at least the 13th century, according to some sources. One explanation for this custom is that eggs were formerly a forbidden food during the Lenten season, so people would paint and decorate them to mark the end of the period of penance and fasting, then eat them on Easter as a celebration.’
Besides buying ready-made egg decorations from shops, painting eggs is one of the most popular activities for not only those families with young children, but also others who want to have creative experience with lots of fun during Easter. International student ambassadors from Queen’s recently joined an egg decorating event, organised by AHSS (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences), to celebrate their Easter on campus.
Key words in Chinese
复活节 (Fùhuó jié) – Easter
装饰 (zhuāngshì) – to decorate
绘画 (huìhuà) – to paint
彩绘 (cǎihuì) – colour painting
蛋 (dàn) – egg
巧克力 (qiǎokèlì) – chocolate
How did it go? We invite one of the International Student Ambassadors, Xiuying, to share her experience with you.
Xiuying DENG is currently a postgraduate student in Marketing from Queen’s University Management School. Images@XiuyingDENG
I was so lucky to be invited and it was such an amazing experience! Drawing is not my strong point at all, to be honest, so I felt a bit nervous before getting started. Here I chose to paint a chick at first, which is really out of the ordinary with different colors because it wore a pair of glasses HAHA! Then, I “dressed up” three plastic eggs. As you can see, some were with colored ribbons and some were with small spots.
At the end of the event, we all voted together to see which was the best. Fortunately, I was awarded a souvenir by Queen’s. I felt that my drawing was not that bad. Anyway, it was an unforgettable experience for me to celebrate Easter in the UK, especially with the cohort of 10 lovely student ambassadors!
We hope you have had fun together with us. If you have done your own egg paintings or other decorations, you are very welcome to share your photos here for a collection of ‘eggcellent’ show.
