On 13th January, 2014, the Confucius Institute at Bangor University launched its first Two Dragons Club in Kingsland School, Holyhead, Anglesey. This was also special for the over 30 Kingsland pupils and teachers, since it was the first Chinese club for them, where they learned Chinese while sharing Welsh and Chinese cultures together with the Confucius Institute.
Why it’s called Two Dragons Club? Once one saw the club poster, he/she got the idea why. There, there’re two dragons. Some pupils got the answer right away. One was Welsh red dragon and the other was Chinese dragon. One stood for Wales, the other for China. That’s what the club was, combining two cultures, a platform for us getting to know each other in cultural exchange and communication. Not only did we learn Chinese language together, but also we explored two cultures, shared the similarity and difference between them, and became inspired by them.
To open the club, Dr. David Joyner, Executive Director of the Confucius Institute, gave an opening speech and prepared New Year gifts for Kingsland. A delicate calendar of 2014, the Chinese year of horse, was presented to the headteacher Mr. Tristan Roberts. The calendar, provided by Hanban, contained elaborate paper cuts of horses on every page. Also, a piece of hand-made wine bottle clothing, in the shape of classical Chinese costumes, and two sets of Chinese fish, which stood for being wealthy every year, were given to the Kingsland teachers.
In the following part, Ms. Meng Yu taught the pupils how to greet each other and introduce oneself in Chinese. What’s interesting was that mandarin teaching was combined with Chinese calligraphy. The pupils were really fond of calligraphy. They enjoyed practicing calligraphy with water on magic paper, and kept asking why the characters just here disappeared in a minute. That’s magic. They tried hard to hold brushes correctly and practiced a few Chinese characters just learned. There must be a lot of fun they found in learning Chinese.
A delicate calendar of 2014, the Chinese year of horse, was presented to the headteacher Mr. Tristan Roberts.
A piece of hand-made wine bottle clothing, in the shape of classical Chinese costumes, and two sets of Chinese fish, which stood for being wealthy every year, were given to the Kingsland teachers.
Why it’s called Two Dragons Club? Once one saw the club poster, he/she got the idea why. Ms. Meng Yu explained the Two Dragon Club to pupils.
A blog about the Two Dragon Club (China Club) was posted on Kingsland’s website.
