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Please click on the PDF letters opposite, written by some of the Chinese students studying English at our partner school, Chen Jinglun High School in Beijing. They are lovely...enjoy!
Click HERE to view Chen Jinglun High School website.
Click HERE to view a Powerpoint presentation
by Victoria Hands, a Year 9 Spanish student. The
homework presentation is about her future trip to
China.
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One World One Dream' t-shirt and banner design by G. Findon of Year 9, chosen from our competition entries. |
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by Ivan Youyou
Ivan is a Chinese student studying English at Beijing Normal University. The following is a report about what the Chinese Spring Fesitval means to him. Ivan also works at the university and he is Mr Murray's main point of contact for the trip in August.
"Spring festival is the most important traditional celebration in China. People may take weeks of holiday from work to prepare for it and celebrate the New Year.
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We have many different kinds of interesting activities to do during the spring festival. Nearly one month before its coming people become busy to do shopping and we call it “spring shopping”. We prepare all what we will need during the festival and all the supermarkets and streets are very busy at that time.
At New Year's Eve, all the family will have a get together and have a big dinner. We call it “guo-nian” which means having the spring festival. In the North of China, people would like to eat dumplings while the southern people would like to have another kind of food, “Tang Yuan”. I lived in the south, on the morning of the first day of the lunar year, we will put coin in the Tang Yuan. If you eat the one with coin, you will be very lucky in this whole new year. And usually I am the one who eat the Tang Yuan with coin. That is interesting.
We also buy Spring Festival couplets and paste them on the either side of our door. The Spring Festival couplets are two successive rhyming lines in poetry that usually express our best wishes in the new year. People who are good at calligraphy and literature would like to write it by themselves. We would also like to make some paper-cuts or buy some New Year paintings and paste them on the wall, hoping for good luck in the new year. |
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Paper-cut is also one of the most important traditional Chinese culture. Children are looking forward to the spring festival because they will get lucky red packet from their parents and relatives. It is cash wrapped up in a red envelope and symbolize fortune and wealth in the coming year. So children always like spring festival. It is similar to your Christmas Day when the children can get gifts form their parents.
We also have lion dance because the lion is believed to be able to dispel evil and bring good luck. You may have seen the lion dance of China on TV. Besides, we also have dragon dance to expect good weather and good harvests. The dragon which might stretch a hundred feet long is typically made of silk, paper, and bamboo. Traditionally the dragon is held aloft by young men who dance as they guide the colorful beast through the streets.
It may be a big understanding about our dragon in the western countries because dragon is regarded as a kind of evil in your culture. But it is completely different from yours both in its appearance and spirit in our traditional Chinese culture. We believe dragon can bring good luck and good harvest to us and also can dispel evil away. So we always say we are the descendants of the dragon. It may be better to call it “Loong” instead of “Dragon”. What’s more, we also have exhibit of lanterns during the spring festival. We have different beautiful lanterns of different shapes and colours. Interesting riddles are written on the lanterns. If you can work out the riddle, you will get a nice present. It’s interesting. Except for the exhibit of lanterns, we also have Very delicious food and art ware that are displayed in the Temple Fair. So every time you go to the Temple Fair, you will always find something new and interesting. It is also a very good chance to know our traditional unique culture. Moreover, from the first day of the lunar new year, we would like to pay New Year's visit to our friends and relatives to give our new years’ greetings.
That’s brief introduction about what we often do during the spring festival and our traditional customs. Spring festival means more than what I have mentioned. It will be great if you join this festival with us, Fraser. |
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