Category Archives: Chinese culture

Welcome to Queen’s

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A snapshot from Queen’s University homepage

With new students’ arrival and returning students back to Queen’s, the campus is full of welcomes and smiles – although social distance should still be maintained. The first charted airplane from Beijing to Belfast in ready on its way, due to departure in the evening on the 18th Sept. Let’s wish them a smooth and pleasant journey!

How to say ‘welcome’ in Chinese?

Photo taken at the Belfast City Airport. The welcome board displays multilingual expressions of ‘Welcome’ messages. However, some messages, including Chinese, are hardly visible due to background colour. Image@ Liang Wang.

So, to say ‘welcome’ in Chinese, one would at least say the word ‘欢迎’ twice to demonstrate a real welcoming atmosphere, plus a smiling face, and perhaps shaking hands in formal and business contexts. One seldom hugs or kisses to welcome people in the Chinese culture.

How to say ‘Welcome to Queen’s University Belfast!’, then?

The gate and The Lanyon Building of Queen’s University Belfast. Image@QUB

Now that you know how to say ‘welcome’ – 欢迎, the order of the message is exactly the same as in English in this expression. Let’s learn a few more vocabulary, including Queen’s in Chinese.

  • 来 (lái) – to come
  • 女王 (nǚwáng) – queen
  • 大学 (dàxué) – university
  • 贝尔法斯特 (Bèi’ěrfǎsītè) – Belfast

Queen’s University Belfast (Queen’s in a known context) has its Chinese equivalence， which is called 贝尔法斯特女王大学. It can be further shortened as 女王大学 in the local context. Therefore, put together, the whole expression can be 欢迎来(贝尔法斯特)女王大学！

Happy Chinese Teachers’ Day

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祝教师节快乐！(Zhù Jiàoshījié kuàilè) Happy Teachers’ Day!

10th September is the Teachers’ Day in China. Let’s take this opportunity to wish all the teachers and would-be teachers a very special (no holiday, nor extra payment) and happy (only among ourselves) day!

On this day in China meetings and ceremonial events are often held to award star teachers who are considered role models and have made significant contributions to education at different levels. Pupils and students often give flowers and cards to their mentors to thank them for their influence on many young hearts and minds.

Image: The Lanyon Building, Queen’s University Belfast

Language tips:

  • 祝 (zhù) – to wish, to celebrate
  • 教师 (jiàoshī) – teacher
  • 节 (jié) – festival
  • 教师节 – Teachers’ Day
  • 快乐 (kuàilè) – happy

How would you celebrate Teachers’ Day in your culture? Share with us if you have any stories by writing in the comment box below.

Happy Qixi Festival

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Did you know that the Chinese traditionally celebrate their own Valentine’s Day on the 7th day of the 7th month in the lunar calendar? It falls on Tuesday 25th August this year.

Officially called Qixi Festival (七夕节 Qīxī jié), it celebrates the annual reunion of the cowherd (牛郎 Niúláng) and weaver girl (织女 Zhīnǚ) in mythology, dating back to the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), which later inspired the Tanabata (たなばた) festival in Japan and Chilseok (칠석) festival in Korea.

It’s been a traditional occasion for girls to pray to the weaver girl for wisdom by demonstrating their talented domestic skills (e.g. needlework and weave). Modern-day celebration highlights the female’s role and contribution to families and society.

Due to pandemic we are unable to host any onsite activities for entertainment and appreciation of its culture. However, here’s the display of last year’s celebration of Qixi Festival, including photos of Chinese paper-folding/cutting, Guzheng music performance and Chinese calligraphy.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=TheLanguageCentreAtQueens&set=a.2185229104939506

Dragon Boat Festival

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This year the iconic Dragon Boat Festival (端午节 Duānwǔjié) falls on Thursday 25th June. Although it won’t be the same as before that we could get together to celebrate, we welcome you to join the Chinese Culture Forum via MS Teams.

Date: Wednesday 24th June
Time: 4 – 5 pm
Access: MS Teams > QUB Chinese LIG

All Queen’s students and staff are welcome!

Celebrating Dragon Boat Festival online; Follow-up materials access

Happy Summer Solstice

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Today is the longest day in the northern hemisphere – how do you celebrate it?

In Chinese culture, this day is called 夏至 (xiàzhì), literally meaning the extreme (至) of the summer (夏). It is one of the 24 solar terms in Chinese culture.

Watch the video below to see how Chinese people celebrate it. Did you notice any of the celebrations of Chinese friends or neighbours today?

Happy Summer Solstice!

Celebrating UN Chinese Language Day

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Here’s more for you to explore:

The date for the Chinese day was selected from Guyu (“Rain of Millet”), which is the 6th of 24 solar terms in the traditional East Asian calendars, to pay tribute to Cangjie. Cangjie is a very important figure in ancient China, claimed to be an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters. Legend has it that he had four eyes and four pupils, and that when he invented the characters, the deities and ghosts cried and the sky rained millet. From then on, Chinese people celebrate the day Guyu in honour of Cangjie. In the Gregorian calendar, it usually begins around April 20.

The UN

To celebrate the UN Chinese Language Day as part of the promotion of multilingualism and cultural diversity, ALL Queen’s staff members and students are welcome to sign up for the Taste of Mandarin Chinese online course which is a self-paced learning resource.

Chinese LIG starting in March

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Following our successful celebrations of CNY 2020 at Queen’s, we are pleased to update you that the Chinese Language Interest Group (Chinese LIG) will be up and running. This is a student-led learning community that aims to enhance a better understanding of Chinese culture through learning its language, with social activities taking place throughout the academic year. It is led by voluntary Chinese students for learners of Chinese or anyone who’s genuinely interested in Chinese language and culture at Queen’s and beyond. You do not have to be registered for a Mandarin Chinese course in order to attend, nor do you need to have a high language level to begin with. All you need is the enthusiasm and willingness to participate in and contribute to group activities, online or onsite. 

To better inform us about your availability for participation, we would like to run a poll for the most mutually convenient time slots. Would you please select the slots for attendance by completing the online poll by Sunday 01/03 so that we could firm up the slots?

If you would like to attend a Chinese class with Language Centre, our 3rd semester enrolment is open  now until Thursday 16th April. See Language Centre Website for details.

We wish you every success in your study of the Chinese language.

Original image from Pixabay

Chinese Culture Quiz Award

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Thanks for your participation in the Chinese Culture Quiz 2020 as part of the Chinese New Year celebrations at Queen’s. We are very pleased to announce this year’s winners after reviewing the answers and making a lucky draw:

From left to right: Shamisha Tew (Law), Jianchun Yang (Management), Emma McCarthy (star winner, Mathematics), Noemi Rodriguez Dominguez (Student Guidance Centre), Sihua Tang (Education) and Rubern Rajasivam (Medicine)

Congratulations! We hope that you all have enjoyed the CNY celebrations so far. Our Chinese Culture Forum 2020 and Chinese Language Interest Group events remain active and you are very welcome to contribute to these programmes.

If you look to attend a language course, online registration will be open from FRIDAY 21 FEBRUARY at 00:30 until THURSDAY 16 APRIL at 17:00 for all classes starting Week beginning Monday 20 APRIL 2020. You may find the course schedule and registration links via the Language Centre website.

CCF2020 Album

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Thanks, everyone, for your active participation in the celebrations of Year of The Mouse at Queen’s!

We are grateful to the students and staff members who contributed to the vibrant cultural activities and, in particular, the informative and inspiring culture talks delivered by:

  • Dr Aglaia De Angeli (HAPP/History)
  • Dr Ibrar Bhatt (SSESW/Education)
  • Ms Rui Sun (PhD candidate, AEL/Languages)
  • Ms Beidi Wang (MSc candidate, Management)
  • Prof Nathan Congdon (Centre for Public Health)

Some of the presentations and follow-up resources are uploaded with an overall link to the Chinese Culture Forum 2020 page and you are very welcome to read and to contact the presenters for further communication.

Our CCF2020 forum remains open for new talks and we would appreciate your contributions to this further development of the forum. Please reply to us if you would like to propose a topic for discussion.