On 18th November 2024, at the invitation of Lycée Saint-Paul de Lens, three Chinese teachers from the Confucius Institute d’Artois, Xu Meng, Chen Yunyun and Qiu Shuzhen, went to the school and demonstrated Taiji, Ba Duan Jin, Pipa, and Ink Painting to the students who were taking the Chinese language courses. The activities lasted for more than two hours and was attended by more than 40 participants.
From 4 to 5 p.m. on that day, in the school's gymnasium, Mr. Xu Meng first performed the Chen's Taijiquan for the students and gave a brief introduction about Taijiquan; then he taught the three basic movements and introduced some characteristics of Taijiquan; later the students followed Mr. Xu, accompanied by the song Hongyan, and had a complete experience of Taijiquan. Although the time was limited, the students participated actively and enjoyed playing Taijiquan.
Baduanjin was taught by Ms.Qiu Shuzhen. The students followed Ms. Qiu reviewing the Chinese numbers at the same time practicing the Baduanjin movements. After experiencing the first three movements, the students could not get enough of it, so Ms. Qiu sent the video link of Baduanjin to the local Chinese teacher and encouraged the students to continue learning.
After the Taiji and Baduanjin activities, the school's Chinese teacher, Wang Siping, led the Confucius Institute teachers back to the classroom. Firstly, Ms. Chen Yunyun led the students to enjoy a video of a performance of traditional Chinese musical instruments, so that the students could have a general understanding and initial experience of traditional Chinese musical instruments and the traditional Chinese music. Then she introduced the first instrument that appeared in the video, the pipa, and then showed through slides the different forms of the pipa in both ancient and modern times. Later she introduced the occasions for pipa performance, and the evolution of the pipa performance methods. She also played different pipa music clips to highlight the characteristics of the pipa and the types of music it can be played. Finally, Ms. Chen played a song called The Whispers of Pipa and guided the students to think about the emotions expressed in the music, then invited the students to imagine the possible storylines in this pipa music.
The second half of the class, Ms. Qiu Shuzhen led the students to experience the ink blowing painting by using ink and straws to blow out plum blossom branches, then embellishing them with plum blossoms, and finally, stamping the words “Between the Grass and the Trees” or “Peace”on the paintings. The event ended successfully at 6.15pm.
