Open Day at the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China
Recently ninety of our Chinese Language students from Years 7 to 12 were invited to the Chinese Consulate in East Perth to help celebrate their Open Day.
The Open Day started with the traditional Lion Dance with two red and black lions welcoming all visitors to this special occasion.
Watched by VIPs the Consul General Lei Kezhong and his wife Mrs Xing Chao with the Minister for Education Hon. Peter Collier MLC, our Head Boy William gave a speech in Mandarin describing his journey with Chinese language to the audience which consisted of students from Highgate Primary School and students from the Universities of Murdoch and UWA .
Performances
The Confucius Institute, UWA students and other performers provided the audience with a variety of arts performances such as the Bamboo flute, the Cucurbit/Hulusi Flute (3 vertical bamboo pipes which pass through a gourd), a famous traditional Dai (minority Ethnic Group) dance called the white Peacock. Students watched a student from Confucius Institute showed her fast skills of kung fu to the audience.
Activities
After the display of performances our students were able to participate in a variety of activities such as martial arts classes, flute classes, paper cut classes, Calligraphy and Chinese Painting classes. A big hit with our students were the dance classes where students had to be able to spin a large weighted handkerchief with their fingers and move from hand to hand. Our Chinese language students were also instructed how to make chinese dumplings so it was lots of rolling the dough and filling the dumblings with stuffings of pork/vegetables, which of course led on to lunch for the students.
It was a fantastic opportunity for our Chinese Language students to learn first hand the culture of China and have the opportunity to practise their Mandarin.