DMU CI's Confucius Classroom Win Special Jury Award

DMU CI’s Confucius Classroom at Little Bowden Won “Special Jury Award” at UN Chinese Language Day Video Festival

On 18 April 2022, news came that the Confucius Classroom at Little Bowden Primary School Affiliated to the Confucius Institute (CI) at De Montfort University (DMU) won the “Special Jury Award” in the 2022 United Nations Chinese Language Day and the 2nd CMG Overseas Chinese Language Video Festival with a video titled “Experience with Guzheng, Qipao, Calligraphy, Painting and Children’s Chorus of A Beautiful Smile”! The award was announced on CCTV and CMG platforms on 20 April across the world.

It is a great honour for DMU CI and Little Bowden to be among the 14 winners of 9 types of awards selected by a panel of global experts from 950 video entries from 45 countries and regions. It was also selected for the brief report aired on CCTV-1’s Primetime News and for the 60-minute Award Ceremony broadcast on CCTV-13, official media platforms of the UN Office at Geneva, CGTN-Europe and many others. There were more reposts and retweets on local and global media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, WeChat and YouTube, etc. by CLEC, CIEF, USTB (University of Science and Technology Beijing), DMU CI and others.

^{Performers aired on CCTV Primetime News}

On March 28, May Smith-Perks, Martha Hall, Pixie Fern, Issy Smith, Mary Goodwin from Little Bowden Confucius Classroom came with their teachers and parents to meet the CI teachers in the DMU CI library for the final rehearsal and video-recordings. With a month of planning and rehearsing in accordance, the pupils did an excellent job introducing themselves in Chinese, playing Guzheng (zither), performing the Qipao (cheongsam) show with traditional Chinese music and displaying their talents at calligraphy, paper-cutting and painting works. It was amazing to see such wonders when East meets West.

Among the pupils was Pixie who, especially fond of Chinese painting, finished with ease the drawing of a tree which she named “Spring” and to which she added her signature in style. Looking at her improvised art-piece, all present were as excited as she was.

^{Pixie Fern displaying her work}

Then the girls chorused “Your Smile Is So Pretty” as the finishing touch to the video. The song was not new to them as it was sung by a larger chorus of 84 of their schoolmates last January for the Beijing Winter Olympics. It was widely spread on official websites and popular social media platforms worldwide.

^{Chorus of “Your Smile Is So Pretty”}

Their performances displayed their genuine love for the Chinese language and Chinese culture. They exuded pride and confidence that promise firmer determination to learn the language better and to gain more knowledge of the rich and colorful culture.

^{Guzheng, Qipao, Calligraphy, Painting and Singing}

Acknowledgments are also due to DMU CI Team, Little Bowden Primary School, parents and friends for their painstaking work in planning, coordinating, video-recording, clipping, editing and revising for this joint-project.