Category Archives: Paper craft

Happy Year of the Loong

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The 龙 Lóng (or Loong / Chinese Dragon) has just arrived at Queen’s!

What an exciting day to welcome the auspicious 龙 Lóng (or Loong / Chinese Dragon) to Queen’s One Elmwood on Thursday 8th February, regardless of the blustery weather (which was said to be accompanying the Loong)!

Dragon Dance performed by QUB Success Lion Dance Club at One Elmwood social space.

Over 60 staff and student representatives from a range of diverse cultural backgrounds celebrated the launch of Year of The Chinese Dragon programme, jointly organised by the Language Centre, iRISE Staff Network, Student Experience Team, The Graduate School, Chinese Students and Scholars Association, supported by Diversity, Inclusion and Staff Wellbeing Unit, and partially sponsored by the QUB Annual Fund.

Professor Margaret Topping, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global Engagement, welcomed the value of contact between different languages and cultures for the benefit of enhanced mutual respect through intercultural exchange.

Professor Margaret Topping, PVC (Global Engagement), delivered a welcome speech to the audience.

We wish that this celebration programme on the Year of The Chinese Dragon, as part of our Celebrating Cultural Diversity at Queen’s scheme, will make a contribution to the multicultural campus development, which sees differences as strength to foster an environment of open-mindedness and acceptance.

The Launch event featured student/alumni performances including guzheng music and classical dance, QUB Staff Wellbeing Choir’s singing of both Chinese and local songs, and the bustling and exciting Dragon Dance inside One Elmwood, followed by an interactive CNY Fair with cultural displays.

  • Guzheng performance by DENG Wei, QUB graduate in Arts Management
  • Classical dance performed by XU Xiaowen, MSc candidate in Construction and Project Management
  • Celebrating with the performers
  • Chinese songs sung by Staff Wellbeing Choir
  • Group photo after Dragon Dance at One Elmwood
  • CNY Fair with God of Fortune and Student Experience Team

The CNY celebration programme includes a three-week-long events and it welcomes all students and staff members to choose their favourate ones to attend in the coming two weeks. For full programme and registration links, please visit CCP2024 Homepage.

More photos will be added to our FB account and if you wish to share yours with us, please attach them via the Comment box below, or click the link for multiple uploading

CNY Photo Collection

Call for Volunteering for CNY Celebrations

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Happy International Volunteer Day (05/12)!

The Language Centre is organising a Chinese New Year Celebration Information Session to mark the International Volunteer Day (05/12) on Monday 04/12 (13:00-15:00) at the Auditorium, McClay Library. If you are interested in what’s going to happen and how you can get involved, feel free to pop in and join us in the session.

Call for volunteers

As the Year of the Dragon (龙年春节) is arriving in Feb 2024, 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.

If you would like to express your interest in volunteering for the preparation and delivery of the proposed events, feel free to scan the QR code, or click the Form URL below to submit your interest.

Volunteering

We also look forward to working with you in our future language and cultural events.

Language Centre Course Enrolment

The second enrolment for courses, including Chinese, to start in January 2024 has now been available online. Anyone wishing to learning Chinese can find relevant course timetable and registration information from The Language Centre Homepage.

Tasting the Rabbit

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Interactive Chinese Cultural Display and Demo

Date: Friday 20 January 2023
Time: 13:00 – 16:00
Venue: 1st Floor Social Space, The Graduate School

About the Event:

Some of the main activities will include Chinese way of traditional writing in calligraphy, performances of musical instruments such as guzheng, guqin, and skills of practising taiji, Chinese dance and traditional Chinese costumes, all of which enriches the interactive topics through live demonstrations and hands-on practice.

Timeline

§ 13:00-13:15: Start and welcome

§ 13:15-13:30: Guzheng performance (DENG Wei)

§ 14:15-14:30: Taiji performance (DA Wenkai)

§ 15:00-15:10: Chinese classic dance (SONG Yihui)

This half-day event is free for all. Tea/coffee and refreshments (including a taste of Chinese traditional snacks) are provided. Booking is needed due to capacity. Please complete the registration form below.

Book the event
Back to CCP2023

Happy New Year 2023

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Bye 2022, Hi 2023!

A calendar on a desk, displaying January 1st 2023, together with some other stationery and a flower vase with some tulips.
Photo credit: Anqi HUANG

As 2022 drew to an end, we wish everyone a happy and healthy 2023! We also would like to remind you that the Chinese New Year (CNY) – Year of the Rabbit – is fast approaching in three weeks’ time. How are you going to celebrate it?

CNY celebrations at Queen’s

We are pleased to let you know that the celebration programme at Queen’s has been underway, with a range of events to entertain all – students, staff members, as well as members of the public. You may find the CNY2023 Programme page via the link below and here are some activities for you to kick a start while more will be uploaded shortly.

CCP2023 Homepage

Celebrations elsewhere in Belfast

In addition to our celebrations on campus, we would like to make you aware of the social celebration of Chinese New Year in Belfast, operated by Success Dragon and Lion Dance Association, a registered charity in Northern Ireland (Charity no. 105478), who had been supporting Queen’s celebrations before pandemic.

The Chinese New Year Celebration returns to the Ulster Hall Belfast on Sunday 22nd January 2023 celebrating the Year of Rabbit. Come to enjoy a day full of fun and joy, rich in Colours and Culture. With over 12 global dances and music not to be missed.

盛大的中國新年慶典再次重臨 Ulster Hall Belfast。 日期是一月廿二號星期日。超過十二個各式的民族表演包括舞龍舞獅，中國功夫和中國的傳統舞蹈表演等。請從速預訂門票！

Alan Lui, Master of The success Dragon & lion dance association

Please note that we are not involved in performances and ticket booking issues. All enquiries should be sent to the Association directly, following the contact information on the poster.

Chinese Brushes in Belfast and Beyond

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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.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is ArtEast-Exhibition-UM-Poster.jpg
See the event on Ulster Museum What’s On

Supported by The Language Centre at Queen’s, the Ulster Museum and the Chinese Welfare Association NI, this half-day event is family-friendly and free for all.

Photo album

To view the ArtEast NI online exhibition starting from Sunday 22nd January when the Year of the Rabbit starts, please click the button below.

CNY23 ArtEast Online Exhibition
CCP2023 Homepage

Chinese course enrolment and call for volunteers

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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.

Class schedule and registration links are accessible via Language Centre website.

Chinese language courses are offered from level 1 to level 5.

Course details and registration

Call for volunteers

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.

Volunteering

Read the Chinese version here.

Paper Tiger Workshop

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It is customary that Chinese households will do house decorations by putting paper crafts of folding or cutting on windows before the new year arrives. As the year to come is Tiger, we invited Zhuoya ZHANG, a master student majoring in Film from School of Arts, English and Languages to show and tell how to make paper tiger crafts.

The workshop is followed by a series of cultural events covering a wide range of topics.

All welcome!

Registration
Event page

Duanwu Festival

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The Duanwu (Dragon Boat) Festival falls on June 14 this year.

Duanwu Festival, 端午节 (Duānwǔ jié) in Chinese, is also widely known as Dragon Boat Festival 龙舟节 (Lóngzhōu jié) in the rest of the world, as one of its celebrative events – dragon boat race – has become so popular in the world. However, like last year due to pandemic lockdown in the UK, we are still unable to watch dragon boat races or to have cultural workshops on campus.

The head of a dragon boat in River Lagan. Image@LiangWANG

If you would like to review how we celebrated it in the past, here are some snapshots with links to full albums (via the Language Centre Facebook).

2020 Culture Talk

2019 Interactive Culture Display

  • Making paper dragon boat and zongzi.
  • Display with paper zongzi.
  • Calligraphy presentation of baby Anna’s name (安娜). Calligrapher Chengbin LIU (left) and visiting academic/presenter Wenting LI (right)
  • Making paper dragon – follow me.
  • Observation and hands-on practice.
  • Happy hands-on practice.

2018 Culture Talk and Workshop

  • Warming up with Guzheng performance
  • Delivering the culture talk
  • Lagan Dragon members’ hands-on practice
  • Watching the demo
  • Success, success!
  • Forget-me-not photo

This time, while we cannot get together again, we have invited some staff and students to show and tell what they have done to celebrate the festival – making and eating zongzi 粽子(zòngzi), a typical type of food made of glutinous rice with sweet (e.g. dates, red bean paste) or savoury (e.g. pork, salted egg yolk) fillings wrapped up by bamboo or reed leaves, as the photos shown below.

  • Zongzi making – reed or bamboo leaves. Image@SharonFAN
  • Zongzi making – materials preparation. Image@YuZHAO
  • Zongzi making – wrapping up. Image@XinzhuPANG
  • Zongzi – wrapped and to be boiled. Image@LiangWANG
  • Zongzi – boiled in a rice cooker. Image@ChenZHANG
  • Zongzi – boiled and served in a plate. Image@XinzhuPANG
  • Zongzi – one unwrapped and ready to eat. Image@YuZHAO
  • Zongzi – wrapped up with dates as stuffing. Image@MengTAN
  • Zongzi – unwrapped and served with a plate. Image@XinzhuPANG
  • Zongzi – unwrapped and served with a bowl. Image@ChenZHANG
  • Zongzi – unwrapped and served in a bowl. Image@MengTAN
  • Zongzi – sweet taste with sugar. Image@SharonFAN
  • Zongzi – savoury taste with pork. Image@SharonFAN
  • Zongzi – savoury taste with pork and salted egg yolk, unwrapped and halved. Image@XinzhuPANG
  • Zongzi – served in a plate with decoration. Image@SharonFAN
  • Zongzi – wrapped up and boiled. Image@YuZHAO
  • Zongzi – ornament. Image@SharonFAN
  • Mung bean cake – additional food. Image@YuZHAO

Vocabulary

  • 粽(子) zòng(zi) – zongzi
  • 糯米 nuò mǐ – glutinous rice; 糯 nuò – sticky and soft; 米 mǐ – rice
  • 粽叶 zòng yè – reed or bamboo leaves; 叶 yè – leaf
  • 竹 zhú – bamboo; 苇 wěi – reed
  • 枣 zǎo – date (fruit)
  • 豆沙 dòushā – red bean paste
  • 咸蛋黄 xián dànhuáng – salted egg yolk
  • 猪肉 zhūròu – pork
  • 绿豆糕 lǜdòu gāo – mung bean cake
  • 装饰 zhuāngshì – ornament, decoration

Greetings

In addition to the common festival greeting that you may say 快乐 kuàilè (happy), many Chinese people also choose to say 安康 ānkāng (peaceful and healthy) or 吉祥 jíxiáng (auspicious). This is because Duanwu Festival is considered having its origin from warding off diseases and illness mostly caused by the rising summer heat and humidity which invited the invasion of poisonous animals such as insects and reptiles. Therefore, you will be able to see people use a varied way of expressions:

  • 端午节快乐！Duānwǔ jié kuàilè! – Happy Duanwu Festival!
  • 端午节安康！Duānwǔ jié ānkāng! – Wish you a peaceful and healthy Duanwu Festival!
  • 端午节吉祥！Duānwǔ jié jíxiáng! – Wish you an auspicious Duanwu Festival!

However, outside overseas Chinese communities, if dragon boat races are the only form of celebrations, i.e. beyond the context of traditional Chinese Duanwu culture, then people would find it normal to just express a happy festive greeting.

  • 龙舟节快乐！Lóngzhōujié kuàilè! – Happy Dragon Boat Festival!

More to explore –

A video of QUB students tasting zongzi and other snacks. Video source: QUB Management School Weibo

Have you done something memorable this Dragon Boat Festival? Tell us and share your stories in the comment box below.

Happy International Women’s Day

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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.

Top: Lili Li and Jean Jing; Bottom: Jieyu Li and Wenli Zhang

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!

Review of the CNY2021 Programme
  • CNY Launch Event – Guest talk
  • CCF2-Screenshot
  • CCF3-Screenshot
  • CCF4-Screenshot
  • CCF5-Screenshot
  • CCF6-Screenshot
  • CCF8-Screenshot
  • CNY Exhibition Panel
Continue reading →

Pre-CNY Workshop

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Here it comes the first event of the CNY celebration – all welcome!

Workshop facilitator:
Ms Jean JING, ArtEast Club co-founder

Workshop organiser:
Dr Liang WANG, The Language Centre

Aims:

  • To celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Ox as part of promoting cultural diversity at Queen’s and beyond
  • To appreciate the art of paper crafts with hands-on experience
  • To promote Chinese language and culture learning at Queen’s

Preparation:
Audience are expected to prepare some A4-size papers, a pair of scissors, and a pen or marker (black ink) in advance.

Registration (Closed)

For more events, please visit Chinese Culture Programme.