On November 23rd local time, the Confucius Institute at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill (CI at UWI Cave Hill) successfully held a ceremony to honor graduates of its Chinese class and unveil a plaque for a Chinese Culture Club. About 140 people gathered for the event, including students enrolled in the said Chinese Class, Chinese living in Barbados, and representatives of the local society. Distinguished guests such as Ms. Wang Ke, Chinese Ambassador to Barbados, Mr. David Bulbulia, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade of Barbados, Prof. Eudine Barriteau, Principal of UWI at Cave Hill, Prof. Clive Landis, Deputy Principal of the same University, were also present at the meeting.
Mr. Song Qingbao, Chinese Co-Director of CI at UWI Cave Hill, briefed his audience on the current situation and development goals of his Institute. He also took the chance to encourage the students to improve their Chinese usage ability, as well as to actively apply for an array of visitor & studying programs sponsored by Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban). Ms. Sandra Grant, a student representative, and Ms. Saskia Moseley, a winner of the “Chinese Bridge” contest, took turns sharing with the audience their gains in Chinese learning and their personal experiences of Chinese culture while visiting China.
In his speech, Mr. David Bulbulia indicated that the Barbados government has always attached great importance to good relations between China and his homeland. He hoped that Chinese learning would add to the growth of Sino-Barbadian friendship, while catalyzing remarkable future developments in a wide range of cooperation between the two countries. Ambassador Wang Ke congratulated students of the Chinese Class on their graduation, and then spoke highly of the excellent job CI at UWI Cave Hill had done. She affirmed the important role the Institute has played in popularizing of Chinese language and culture among the locals, and pointed out that the establishment of a Chinese Culture Club is a significant move for furthering Sino-Barbadian culture exchanges in the coming days.
After that, Ambassador Wang Ke and Principal Eudine Barriteau took to the stage to jointly unveil the plaque of the newly-created Chinese Culture Club. They also teamed up with Deputy Principal Clive Landis to hand out graduation certificates to UWI teaching staff, UWI students, and child trainees who had successfully completed their Chinese course.
As a part of that ceremony, cuddlesome child performers from China and foreign countries sang Chinese songs together and UWI teachers and students recited classic Chinese poems which eulogize friendship.Their melodious voices and good Chinese pronunciation won waves of applause from the audience.
The first activity sponsored by the newly-established Chinese Culture Club was the screening of a Chinese movie (The Chinese Partner) for the audience on the same night of the ceremony. This was followed by a brief discussion between the staff of CI at UWI Cave Hill and movie viewers on the venue after the show.
