On the first day of new Moon after winter solstice tianxia, or the Celestial Kingdom as China is traditionally referred to, celebrates its major and the most long-lasting festival known as the Spring Festival. It is this very day that is considered the beginning of the New Year in China. On 24 February the Chinese New Year also came to Belarus State Economic University.

Wu Yue and Chan Huei, the teachers of the Department of English and Oriental Languages, decided to show the Chinese New Year traditions gathering together both Belarusian and Chinese students and teachers. The festival was held in two languages – Chinese and Russian, with Wu Yue and Andrei Kuyavsky as hosts.

The festival opened with a traditional new year song «Gongxi, gongxi» which means “Congrats”, that was sung by the third-year students of the School of International Business Communications. The second-year students also contributed to the celebrations; although they started learning Chinese not long ago, they are making a good progress which they demonstrated reciting several poems devoted to the Spring Festival.

The entertaining part of the event was followed by the educational one — Irina Dureiko, the third-year student of the School of International Business Communications related how the New Year is celebrated in China and, to check if the audience were attentive, she ran a quiz. The winners got little prizes — Chinese cards with traditional images.

In another game the participants were supposed to take small round candies from one glass to another using chopsticks, with both students and teachers taking part in this funny entertainment. Chinese New Year celebrations are hard to imagine without a coming year symbol, that is why a short lecture on oriental zodiac signs given by Sofia Kostyukovich, third-year student of the School of International Economic Relations, was absolutely to the point.

There were also guest students from other Universities present. One of the guests shared his story of learning Chinese and congratulated everybody with his song «Xin nian hao le» (“Happy New Year”).

The festival went on with the memorable performance of Chinese students that included a fascinating conjurer’s magic show with cards and small objects, soulful singing and impressive poetry recital.

The festival was held in a warm and informal atmosphere, with active participation of both Belarusian and Chinese students of the University. There was also time for tasting Chinese tea, an indispensable attribute of Chinese culture.   The get-together ended in the workshops of traditional Chinese arts and handicrafts – art of calligraphy and Chinese knotting.

Ekaterina Kovalyova,
School of International Business Communications