Submitted by dut on
On the occasion of “One Belt One Road and a Prosperous Africa Conference”, co-hosted by Confucius Institute(CI) at Durban University of Technology(DUT), the South African students from the CI showcased their understanding of Chinese language and culture by giving a special report performance. They shared the stage with South African local artists to support “OBOR” strategic conception.
About 120 people including the South African and Chinese officers, experts, professors and delegates attended the Gala. Director General of South Africa International Relations and Cooperation Department Ambassador J.Matjila, Deputy Director Ambassador A Sooklal, President of China Institute of International Studies Ambassador Su Ge, Speaker of eThekwini Municipality Mr Logie Naidoo, Chinese Consul-General to Durban Mr Wang Jianzhou, Vice-Chancellor Principal of DUT Professor Ahmed C Bawa and other important guests presented at the gala, and delivered important keynote addresses. Ambassador Majila spoke highly of the relationship between China and South Africa and he invited the experts to share their advice on building up “OBOR”. Mr Logie Naidoo said that the initiative of “OBOR” represents the China’s willingness to strengthen the relationship between China and African Countries. And he thought that the “OBOR” initiative will provide a precious opportunity for South Africa and other African countries to better communicate and collaborate with China.
Alan Khan, senior executive and Corporate Affairs Director of DUT, chaired the gala. His humorous style won the applause of the audiences. The students from DUT CI and its two satellite teaching stations shared the stage with a famous South African Jazz band to bring forth a fantastic cultural evening.
The opening program was started by a Chinese folk dance “Good Life” by DUT CI students dancing group, and enthusiastic performance showed, in a very traditional Chinese way, the vigor of South African youth. The audience were further fascinated with the impressive musical instrument masterpiece by a group of young children from CI’s satellite teaching station SD Chinese Language and Culture Promotion Center; students from another DUT CI satellite teaching station “Heihu Martial Arts School” stunned the audience with an excellent martial arts performance, involving Chang Fist, Tong Bei Shaolin Fist, Shaolin Stick, Spring and Autumn Broadsword which highlighted the gala.
A Chinese Dai folk dance “Growing Dai Flowered Daughter” presented by Ms Doris Wang, a volunteer teacher from DUT CI, shows the magic growth of a Dai girl’s life; finally, a Chinese famous song “Jasmine” brought by two CI mandarin students won another round of applause from the guests. The theatrical performances ended with the Chinese kids’ dance “Celebrating a Happy and Prosperous Chinese Year” that left an impressive memory to all the audience.