On February 9, 2014, the long-awaited New Year Get Together was held jointly by the Confucius Institute at Bangor University and Ysgol Cae Top, the biggest Chinese school in North Wales. The get together decorated with Chinese lanterns, the Chinese character "fu" (meaning blessing or happiness), Chinese knots, new year scrolls, and pompoms in the lobby of Cae Top，created a traditional festive atmosphere. Students at the Chinese school were mostly British Born Chinese (BBC), who have found Chinese more difficult to learn when comparing it with English and its alphabetic writing system. Chinese characters consist of several basic strokes such as dot, horizontal, vertical, left-falling, right-falling, turning, etc, making it difficult for students to read and write them. The BBCs have pursued their Chinese studies on Saturdays, with the Confucius Institute always supporting Cae Top’s teaching and cultural activities. With the joint efforts of all parties, Cae Top students had won the UK champion of Chinese Poetry Recitation Contest.

Spring Festival 2014 is a good opportunity for the BBCs to get to know Chinese New Year traditions and customs. Prof. Zhang, Liying, co-director of the Confucius Institute, enriched the content of her lecture by referring to the differences between New Year greetings given by men and women respectively, the correct way to hang new year scrolls and to figure out the first and second lines of the couplets. The atmosphere was lively with students’ active participation. Ms. Meng complicated the competition of chopstick-using by stipulating that students had to wear Peking Opera masks. In spite of this, many of the students made it look easy. The Tai Chi performance by Ms. Zhihui, Li immediately caught students’ attention so much that many of them joined her. Sam and Peter, who had won many prizes, performed Chinese poetry recitation. Additionally, students were deeply impressed by a wonderful guzheng performance by student Yu Dian. The get together successfully ended in a cheerful atmosphere.

A group photo of faculties from the Confucius Institute and teachers of Ysgol Cae Top.

With the joint efforts of all parties, Cae Top students had won the UK champion of Chinese Poetry Recitation Contest.

Students each got a New Year picture for putting couplets in right positions.

The competition of chopstick-using combined with Peking Opera masks seemed easy for students.

Tai Chi performance immediately spurred students’ active participation.

Students were impressed by a wonderful guzheng performance.

Sam and Peter both, winners of many prizes, performed Chinese poetry recitation.

The get together successfully ended in a cheerful atmosphere.