News Report

Chinese Spring Festival: Let’s Celebrate New Year!

by Li Chang
The Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival for Chinese. It also has the most festive atmosphere among the year. It is an important part of Chinese culture. As the coming of the Spring Festival, the teachers of the Confucius Institute at Moi University(CIMU) certainly would not miss this opportunity to lead students to enjoy an authentic Chinese New Year!

On the morning of February 4th ,2018, Professor Huang Peixi, Chinese Director of CIMU, Professor Peter Simatei, Director of CIMU, three teachers from China: Chen Jian, Huang Xiaozhao, Yan Jiaqing; Vice President of Association of Overseas Chinese in Kenya, Zhao Xiaohua,  and other overseas Chinese representatives, as well as all Volunteer teachers of CIMU, came early to the main campus of Moi University. Together, we set up the venue with the lanterns, the red flags, the Chinese knots, the Chinese clothes, the Chinese songs, the Chinese food and so on. Although without the knowledge of the four seasons, the equatorial sun is full of the joy of the Spring Festival.

 The preparation work is very complicated. CIMU students enthusiastically registered as volunteers and help us with it. Setting up tents, hanging up lanterns and posting posters, each one of us, regardless of African faces or Asian faces, was intertwined and busy in the weekend campus. Vice President Zhao Xiaohua also came to help with hanging lanterns, and sewing the sheets of riddles into the lantern. Teacher Chen Jian was even more talented. When he entered the tent, he took up the soft pen and showed the students his calligraphy.

With the joint efforts of everyone, the event officially started at 12:30 pm. Although it’s a Sunday and the eve of the final exam, the enthusiasm of the students was unusually high. Not only the students, but even some faculty members came to participate in our activities of the Chinese New Year. We have arranged a bonus task and six regular tasks. The reward task was that everyone can try on more than a dozen sets of Chinese traditional costumes from CIMU collection and ten sets of African fashion clothes designed by Donghua University, and take photos. The participants were very excited wearing such gorgeous traditional costumes from China that they even reluctant to take off, posing one after another pose, and cannot be stopped at all!  As the world’s first CI that’s featured by clothing and textiles, this bonus task has brought the characteristics of CIMU to the fullest!

The six regular tasks are: “use of chopsticks”, “Chinese paper-cutting”, “soft pen calligraphy”, “making dumplings”, “riddles”, and “new year’s wishes”. The “use of chopsticks” task was established by Zhou Sijia. Students were asked to use chopsticks to pick five peanuts to the designated plate. Some students seemed been stuck with the two sticks, and their hands were overwhelmed. The "Chinese paper-cutting" task was under the responsibility of Wang Yuan. Students were required to select one of the four patterns (panda, Chinese character "spring", frontal dog, and side-view dog) that had been printed correctly and cut out and pasted on the prepared. With red pictures on the white background, the students were delighted to have them in their hands.

The “soft pen calligraphy” task was charged by Zhou Yuanyuan. The students was asked to follow the correct strokes. The students were so serious about writing, that their fingertips touched the ink but they were unaware. One stroke after another, they brought the “fu (good luck)” to Kenya. The “Dumplings” task was directed by Jiang Zhaofeng. The students were asked to make dumplings. We prepared the gas, put the dumplings in the pot and cooked it for everyone to share. "Riddles" task was charged by Li Chang. Students need to choose one of the 400 lantern riddles to answer, in the tent hung with 50 red lanterns. The “Send Blessings” task was in charge of Li Yiran. Students need to send a New Year greeting facing the camera. The blessings like“Happy New Year”, “Happy The Year of the Dog,” and “All the best” came one after another from the tent, making people feel happy.
 

Finally, under the guidance of Prof.Huang Peixi and outstanding delegates of overseas Chinese, all volunteer teachers and students of the Confucius Institute jointly send New Year's wishes and blessings to China and Kenya: Wish both China and Kenya an everlasting prosperity!