On 7th March 2025, Chinese teachers of the Confucius Institute in Artois Xu Meng and Qiu Shuzhen were invited to the Collège Jean Monnet in Calais to carry out a series of cultural activities to support the enrollment of the school’s Chinese language course. The event lasted three hours and was attended by around 150 students and parents.
Mr. Xu Meng gave a Taijiquan demonstration at the Open Day. Firstly, Mr Xu practised the classical Taijiquan movements to the sound of Chinese music, which drew applause from pupils and parents alike. Next, Mr Xu introduced the students to Taijiquan and taught them to use the Chinese numbers “one, two, three, four ......” to accompany their body movements, so that they could begin to feel the rhythm of the Chinese language as they performed the movements. Many of the pupils gave it a go, and at the same time, the parents who accompanied them also expressed an interest in Taijiquan. |
Ms. Qiu Shuzhen was in charge of ink-blowing painting and panda paper folding activities. Ms. Qiu invited the students to follow the steps involved in creating a Chinese style ink drawing using ink, straws and paint, and later stamped traditional Chinese seals on their drawings to complete the creation of a plum blossom. The panda paper folding also aroused the curiosity of the students, some of whom folded them directly onto their hands, while others drew pandas on the pandas that Ms. Qiu had folded in advance. Ms. Qiu also spoke with the pupils and their parents, teaching them to say “hello”, “thank you” and “goodbye” in Chinese and encouraging them to learn Chinese when they start secondary school.
The above cultural activities were well received by the pupils, parents and the local Chinese teacher attending the school's Open Day. They also attracted the interest in Chinese language and culture among local primary school graduates, helping to boost the enrollment in the school's Chinese language program.
