NCI provide Chinese cultural workshops for Rushcliffe School pupils

120 year 7 pupils at Rushcliffe School attended Chinese cultural workshops delivered by the Nottingham Confucius Institute on 9^th October.  The workshops consisted of Chinese calligraphy, brush painting, paper cutting and origami and were provided as part of the school’s cultural enrichment programme

During the brush painting session, Mrs Zhuo Earl introduced the four treasures of Chinese painting- Chinese brush, ink, Xuan paper and ink stone before teaching them how to plan and draw black and white pandas on Xuan paper. At the paper cutting session, Miss Xi Chen and Miss Zhuodan Shen taught the pupils how to use origami techniques to create the Chinese character “囍” (or “blessing”) out of paper.

All workshops were well received by the pupils, many of them saying these activities were great fun and enjoyable and asking our staff how to say hello and good bye in Chinese. The School representative also expressed their gratitude to NCI staff for their help and for sharing such fascinating aspects of Chinese culture with them.  

~ENDS~

       10月9日，英国诺丁汉孔子学院的老师受邀赴rushcliffe school（拉什克利夫）中学开展了中国艺术工作坊活动。工作坊的项目丰富多样，有书法、绘画、剪纸与折纸，四个班的学生轮流参与体验，活动开展十分顺利。

      在书法项目中，学生们展现出了对书法艺术的极大兴趣与好奇，书法之所以成为一门艺术，正因为书法是以中国汉字为载体，而中国的汉字，每个汉字的形体都不一样，字形千变万化，而毛笔呈锥形、八面出锋，书法家们通过控制毛笔的速度、轻重、枯湿、笔锋部位可以创造非常丰富的笔墨形象。因此，汉字区别于表音文字的特性加上书法的艺术特色深深地吸引着体验的学生们。他们练习着如何控制毛笔，如何展现线条和安排字体结构，完成了自己第一次的书法作品。除了书法以外，同学们还体验了如何用毛笔绘画，他们在老师的引导下纷纷画出了一只只憨态可掬的熊猫，同学们欢呼着“This is my panda！”（这是我的熊猫！）

     通过一把剪刀和一张纸，富有智慧的中国人民创造出了无数兼具美感和艺术感的剪纸形象，而其中“喜”在中国更是常被家有喜事的家庭用来作为装饰，透着喜气洋洋。在此次工作坊中，老师们向同学们介绍了汉字“喜”的含义以及如何剪出“喜”字。另外，同学们还剪了喜爱的金鱼等小动物。除了剪纸，折纸也是中国人民生活中的一个乐趣，因此老师们还教同学们折了小盒子、小船和千纸鹤，最后同学们都十分高兴地用折好的盒子带走了自己的剪纸和折纸作品。

      许多同学在体验结束后都在问如何用中文打招呼和道别，此次工作坊不仅仅丰富了中学学生的学校生活，同时也是让同学们感受到中国文化特色的一次活动。