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.
Discovering Chinese Family Names and Dialects at QUB and elsewhere in Northern Ireland
This cultural survey is part of the programme for 2023 Chinese New Year Celebrations (CNY) at Queen’s. It invites Chinese-speaking staff members, students from Queen’s University, and members of the public who identify themselves with Chinese origin (e.g. early immigrants) to tell us their Chinese names and the dialects they speak. We hope to collect Chinese names with a focus on a variety of Chinese family names and the richness of the dialects they speak. The survey is to be filled in Chinese.
For members of non-Chinese speaking communities who have been learning/using Chinese, esp. who have a Chinese name, you are more than welcome to share with us your information (in English) in the corresponding section (Q1, Q2, Q5, Q6, Q7) as well.
The participation is voluntary and we will publish/present the result (family names and dialects only) on the Chinese@QUB Blog in due course. The cut-off date for this survey is the CNY date (Sunday 22nd January 2023).
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.
Highlighting the power of collective humanity to drive positive change through volunteerism, the UN Volunteers (UNV) programme coordinates IVD on 5 December annually to recognize and promote the tireless work, not just of UN Volunteers, but of volunteers across the globe.
The Queen’s Chinese Blog, on behalf of the The Language Centre and The iRise Staff Network, would like to send our best wishes to all those, students and alumni, who have supported us in one way or another on a voluntary basis, for the yearly Chinese language and culture events on campus and elsewhere. It has been a wonderful experience of working with you, which has proved a series of journey logs that we have learned from each other, built up solidarity and mutual respect.
Call for volunteers
As the Year of the Rabbit is fast approaching, we are looking for talented students and staff members to volunteer for our Chinese New Year celebration 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 also look forward to working with you in our future events.
Double 11th Day (the 11th of November), more widely known as Chinese Singles’ Day, was invented by some young Chinese college students in the early 90s, who were singles longing for love and affection to end their bachelor’s (pun. single/degree) life before their graduation. However, it has now been switched to the commercial side of it – shopping. More and more businesses have started their marketising of the Day as an important occasion of selling their products and service.
Queen’s alumnus, LU Yi (卢艺), BSc in Accounting (2011-2014), has shared his thoughts on the changing phenomenon of the Double 11th Day celebrations
What I feel about this day is that actually it is not just one day of crazy selling and buying. It’s a season which has started as early as the beginning of November when one could feel the air of massive advertising and promotion. People have already started placing orders in order to secure the Double 11th Day discounts and pay in full by that day.
However, I think that the original sense of celebrating the Double 11th Day has received less attention, probably because nowadays young people start to fall in love earlier than people did in the past. In addition, I think it also reflects the changing social attitude towards those who choose to remain single, from being opposing to becoming tolerant and accepting. More and more young people would agree with the social phenomenon that being alone is their freedom, a decision they want to make for themselves rather than following traditional family value and surrendering to social pressure.
So, how did LU Yi spend his Double 11th Day this year?
The timer LU Yi set for remembering the phenomenal moment
Well, haha, I’ve got married at the beginning of this year so I’m no longer a bachelor – no need to celebrate. But I did place a couple of orders to buy something useful – a pair of trainers for badminton play, a down jacket to keep me warm during winter, and a set of earphones, altogether having a discount of 20%. That’s it.
Queen’s Chinese alumni, what did you buy for Double 11th Day? And Chinese students at Queen’s, what are you going to order for the Black Friday and Christmas shopping overall? Tell us by leaving your comments below!
This year the Double Ninth Day, or 重阳节 (Chóngyángjié) in Chinese, falls on 4th October. It is traditionally an occasion for showing respect to the elderly or ancestors, as well as attaching special importance to families. One of the customary cultures of practice is to climb a hill to a high place (爬山登高 pá shān dēng gāo) and think of their departing family members with good wishes.
In contemporary times it is an occasion for outdoor exercising (户外运动 hùwài yùndòng) such as excursion (远足 yuǎn zú). In Belfast, the Cave Hill is such a great outdoor site for both local and international residents to go hiking. The photos below are from Ziqing Wei (魏子晴), a postgraduate in interpreting, who recently went out with her friends to climb the Cave Hill for fun.
‘远离城市的浮躁和喧嚣，感受大自然，在山顶眺望远方海天相接处，享受内心的宁静。’
Translation: It’s great to be able to distance myself from the hustle and bustle of the urban life and to appreciate the peace of mind when I can embrace the nature, looking afar from the top of the Hill until the end where the sky and the sea disappear into thin air.
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.
Following the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, we think that it is appropriate and respectful to postpone our Mid-Autumn Festival celebration event. The event will be rescheduled and a further notice will be made soon.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a great occasion for family reunion in the Chinese culture, and we hope that you will join us in sending our condolences to the Royal Family on the loss of their most important family member.
You may click to read QUB tribute in English and in Chinese.
It is so special that this year the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on today, Saturday 10th Sept, which coincides with the Teachers’ Day in China. Although we will not be able to get together in person to celebrate this double-festival day, we would like to send our warmest wishes to all who share this culture from QUB and elsewhere.
We have seen our students finding their ways of making mooncakes by themselves with passion and creativity. In the following video clip contributed by Qi SHUAI, you may find it interesting to see how mooncakes can be made by using local materials while she feels being distant (and homesick) from their home.
(Translation: Last Mid-Autumn Festival I was still packing up at home for my overseas study and now it has been a year since I left my parents. As the Chinese saying goes, one would double-miss their family when it comes to festivals for reunion, I am always keen to celebrate the traditional Chinese festivals when I travel away from home. Once again, now I miss my family and friends so much, although I don’t know a date to return yet. The Mid-Autumn Festival is the second most important event after the Spring Festival to Chinese families, as the full and bright moon in autumn symbolises a great occasion for family reunion. However, as I’m at a distant place, I have to borrow another saying that one can only pass on thoughts to their beloved through sharing the full and bright moon. Hence, I look up and afar, praying that the Mid-Autumn moon will share my best wishes and my hand-made mooncakes to the people I love and care in China.)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CiTjReyqxgd/
We would also like to take this opportunity to send our best wishes to the faculties both in Queen’s and elsewhere for a very relaxing Chinese Teachers’ Day!
Well, then, did you know when the World Teachers’ Day is and if there are any special date for teachers in your culture? Please share with us in the comment box below.
For our Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations and Chinese Teachers’ Day posts in the past, you may wish to read the following entries:
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.
The Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu Festival (端午节 Duānwǔ jié), is a traditional Chinese festival with a history of over 2000 years. It occurs on the 5th day of the 5th month in Chinese lunar calendar, which falls on Friday 3rd June this year.
Duanwu Festival is widely known as Dragon Boat Festival (龙舟节 Lóngzhōu jié) to the rest of the world, as one of its celebrative events – dragon boat racing – has become so popular (受欢迎 shòu huānyíng) in the world.
Today, we would like to invite Dr YAO Xudan (姚旭丹) to introduce dragon boat racing and share with us her interesting experiences of joining in races when she was in Belfast and more recently in Manchester.
Image@LiangWANG
YAO Xudan (姚旭丹) studied her PhD in Queen’s University Belfast from 2014 to 2018. Afterwards, she joined the National Graphene Institute, University of Manchester, as a postdoctoral research associate. Currently, she is continuing her research in Queen Mary College, University of London.
Dragon Boat Racing in Belfast
When I was doing my PhD at Queen’s, I joined dragon boat racing as a paddler twice in 2015 and 2016, as a member of Team QUB, which were organised by Chinese Welfare Association NI. People from different professional backgrounds, including universities, associations, boat clubs, etc., signed up for the events with full enthusiasm. Chinese food was prepared and supplied to all participants. Although we did not win in the end, everyone enjoyed the teamwork spirit (团队精神 tuánduì jīngshén) during racing, despite the bad weather. My colleagues from Spain and India were so excited that they wanted very much to follow up celebrations as such in the future. I believe that our traditional culture (传统文化 chuántǒng wénhuà) could be shared and accepted widely in this engaging way.
Dragon Boat Race 2015 | Image@LiangWang
Dragon Boat Race 2015 | Image@LiangWang
Dragon Boat Race 2015 | Image@LiangWang
Dragon Boat Race 2015 | Image@LiangWang
Dragon Boat Race 2015 | Image@LiangWang
Dragon Boat Race 2015 | Image@LiangWang
Dragon Boat Race 2015 | Image@LiangWang
Dragon Boat Race 2015 | Image@LiangWang
Dragon Boat Racing in Manchester
On 29th May 2022, the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival was held in Manchester, with 36 teams from universities, companies and institutions participating in the competition. With my previous experience of Belfast races I joined one of the University of Manchester teams, which was formed by all girls. The morning was a bit wet but fortunately it became sunny during the race. Again, although we could not enter into the final competition (决赛 juésài), we were satisfied with our great team performance and enjoyed ourselves. Apart from the racing, the festival also included Chinese kung fu performance (功夫表演 gōngfu biǎoyǎn), singing (唱歌 chànggē), dancing (跳舞 tiàowǔ) and tasting (品尝 pǐncháng) traditional Chinese food such as zongzi (粽子 zòngzi), baozi (包子 bāozi), marinated eggs (卤蛋 lǔdàn), making it an exciting and fun experience.
Dragon Boat Race in Manchester | Image@XudanYao
Dragon Boat Race in Manchester | Image@XudanYao
Dragon Boat Race in Manchester | Image@XudanYao
Dragon Boat Race in Manchester | Image@XudanYao
Dragon Boat Race in Manchester | Image@XudanYao
Overall, dragon boat racing is really one of the wonderful occasions for people to get together and celebrate our traditional festival, as well as to enhance intercultural communication and understanding between people of different communities.
About dragon boatracing
Dragon boats are human-powered watercrafts originally made of wood, and in modern times upgraded into carbon or glass fibre composites, as well as other lightweight materials. They are universally decorated with a Chinese dragon head and tail. For racing, a standard dragon boat typically consists of 20 paddlers, one drummer facing toward the paddlers, and one steerer. However, there are also small boats with a capacity of 10 paddlers.
Image@XudanYao
Author: YAO Xudan Editors: Martin Duffy and WANG Liang
Have you joined any boat racing events before? You are very welcome to share your experience by using the comment box below.
More to read
Here are posts about our past celebrations of Dragon Boat Festival, if you are interested in getting to know more about our celebrations at Queen’s.
After a 3 year absence the 16th annual Queen’s University Belfast Boat Race will take place next month, with Queen’s men and women rowers taking on Trinity College Dublin on Saturday 11 June 2022. As well as the main event there will also be junior races involving local schools racing over the 2km course.
