Chinese New Year events at VG&M
Chinese New Year Events at Victoria Gallery and Museum
The Confucius Institute at the University of Liverpool and Victoria Gallery & Museum jointly held a series of Chinese New Year events, in order to promote cultural exchange between China and the UK, and make a positive impression on Chinese New Year and Chinese culture.
Saturday Family Event
A family Saturday activity of Chinese culture at Victoria Gallery & Museum was held at the University of Liverpool on January 25 from 1:00pm to 3:00pm. A voluntary Mandarin teacher Qian Wang kicked it off by giving a brief introduction. The activity was divided into two groups of workshops, calligraphy and paper-cutting. Guests who came to the event expressed their interest in Chinese calligraphy and paper cutting. During this activity, people also enjoyed the performance of Guzheng by Xiaoxiao Hou, a PGR student from School of Music at the University of Liverpool, which added festive atmosphere. The audience were absolutely impressed by the performance. Some children danced with the melody. The event was a great success with over 400 people.
Kirsty Hall, curator of the VG&M museum and Lifelong Learning thanked the Confucius Institute staff for the wonderful activities and music, ‘families clearly enjoyed learning about Chinese culture and making some beautiful art works to take home.’
Chinese Dance Workshop
To celebrate the Chinese New Year, the Confucius Institute at the University of Liverpool held a Chinese dance workshop at Victoria Gallery & Museum in the University of Liverpool on February 4th.
At first, a volunteer Mandarin teacher of Confucius Institute, Mengyi Hu, made a brief introduction to the origin and characteristics of Chinese dance, and then she performed a Chinese classical dance. Then Mengyi showed some unique costumes and props of Chinese dance to everyone. In order to present them more vividly, Mengyi also added several pieces of Chinese dance and invited audience to try the props. Warm applause continued through the event, and participants showed their strong interest in Chinese dance culture. After introducing Chinese dance, Mengyi taught participants a part of Tibetan dance. Finally, the participants chose their favorite dance props and stored the memories in the photos.
The Confucius institute at the university of Liverpool and Victoria Gallery & Museum jointly held the event, which aims to spread Chinese culture, promote friendly cultural exchanges between China and the UK, and make a good impression on Chinese dance.
Chinese Calligraphy Workshop
Xuejing Lin, a voluntary teacher at the Confucius Institute at the University of Liverpool, led a Chinese calligraphy experience workshop at the Victoria Gallery and Museum. All participants were adults. Everyone showed great passion and interest in Chinese calligraphy culture.
Xuejing showed the four treasures of Chinese calligraphy study, writing brush, ink, rice paper and ink stone. She then respectively explained the production and use of different types of writing brushes, the grinding process and the type of ink, the different types of rice paper, and encouraged students to use water-based writing cloth for writing practice, which could achieve environmental protection and convenience.
The teacher then led the students to copy nine Chinese characters of the Confucius Institute at the University of Liverpool, emphasizing the order and structure of the strokes. The students completed the exercise tasks well and performed well in the final product writing. A relatively complete set of calligraphy works were done.
After the experiencing class, most students expressed that they would continue with their calligraphy practice at home, hoping to learn more about Chinese calligraphy culture and enjoy the practice.