On July 24, seven teachers and students from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, USA, were invited to visit Hwa Nan to experience Chinese culture and were warmly received by the leaders, teachers and students of Hwa Nan. This is the fifth time that teachers and students from University of Puget Sound have visited our college.
On July 26, Vice President Huang Leijing gave a lively and interesting Chinese culture lesson Picturesque Chinese Characters in English for American teachers and students. She started from the origin of Chinese characters and introduced the evolution of Chinese characters from picture characters to oracle script, gold script, seal script, and then to official script, cursive script, regular script and running script over the past 4,000 years. She led American teachers and students to feel the beauty of Chinese calligraphy and understand the profound cultural heritage of the Chinese nation in the long history of 5,000 years.
After class, at the invitation of the American teachers and students, Vice President Huang Leijing and Teacher Li Haibin from the Department of Culture and Education inscribed words on the folding fans for the American students.
On the same day, Associate Professor Tian Zhongyu from the Department of Basic Education introduced the physical and mental benefits of Tai Chi to American teachers and students from the perspectives of traditional Chinese philosophical thoughts and medical theories. He then demonstrated and taught a simplified version of Tai Chi movements, which aroused great interest of American teachers and students, and the classroom atmosphere was warm and positive.
The teachers and students of the University of Puget Sound experienced a rich and colorful cultural feast in our college, and gained more in-depth understanding of the broad and profound and long history of Chinese culture. The teachers and students said that they benefited a lot from this cultural trip. After returning home, they will strengthen their Chinese language learning and deepen their exploration of traditional Chinese culture. They look forward to visiting China again in the future, or even working and living in China, and at the same time, encouraging more American young people to visit China and build a bridge of friendship between Chinese and American youth.
President Xi Jinping said that for the China-U.S. relationship, the hope lies in the peoples of the two countries, the foundation is laid by the two peoples, the future depends on the youth, and the vitality comes from exchanges at subnational levels. Hwa Nan will continue to be open to the public, strengthen ties and exchanges with friendly universities in the United States, promote mutual understanding and mutual respect between the young people of the two countries, and make unremitting efforts to continue the story of friendship between the Chinese and American people.