On the afternoon of December 11, 2024, local time, Chen Yunyun, a Chinese teacher at the Confucius Institute of Artois, was invited to the Baudimont Private High School (Lycée Privé Baudimont) to conduct a pipa class. The class lasted for one hour and eight students participated.
Ms. Chen arranged the course into four parts. In the first part, she guided the students through a video to introduce the ten main traditional Chinese musical instruments, thus introducing the theme of the course. Then, she briefly introduced the history and playing methods of pipa, focusing on the characteristics of pipa, and she led the students to appreciate a clip of pipa music to enjoy its unique characteristic. The second part is the appreciation of famous pipa music performed by renowned artists. Ms. Chen selected a famous pipa music “Ambush on All Sides (十面埋伏Shí miàn mái fú)”. Before listening, she introduced the historical background of the Chu-Han War, as well as the key battle of that era, the Battle of Gaixia. After listening the music, Ms. Chen asked the students to share their opinions on what they have heard, and the feedback of the music based on the knowledge they learned. The third part is the teacher's live performance session. Ms. Chen performed a pipa piece with a distant charm and poetic atmosphere entitled “Wild Geese Alighting on a Sandbank（平沙落雁Píng shā luò yàn）”. The last part is the performance of the students. As the Christmas is approaching, Ms. Chen taught the students who were interested in pipa to play the French version of "Jingle Bells" (vive le vent).
Through this pipa class, Ms. Chen tried to broaden students' perspectives of Chinese culture by combining traditional Chinese instruments with traditional Chinese music, Chinese stories and the French local music. The students gave positive feedbacks and were interested in learning how to play the instrument.