PILOT CONFUCIAN CLASSES
Do you know the difference between the dragons from China and Krakow? Since September 2010 the Centre of Chinese Language and Culture of Jagiellonian University, Confucius Institute invites students of primary, grammar and high schools of Krakow for a trip into the mysterious world of the Chinese culture. The students would learn Chinese language and calligraphy, practice taiji and train their chopsticks skills. The Confucian teachers would share with them their passions - introduce the secrets of green tea and various tastes of China, talk about ancient Chinese traditions, festivals and philosophy and invite to discover modern China.
CHINESE NEW YEAR
The Confucius Institute of Krakow celebrated the upcoming Year of Tiger by many various events. The official gala of the Spring Festival was held under the surface of earth, in the Wieliczka Salt Mine. The event started with a series of workshops concerning many aspects of traditional and modern Chinese culture – games and sports, arts, tea ceremony, calligraphy, kungfu, taiji and qigong. Some of the visitors were too shy to take part in practical workshops but they enjoyed the lectures concerning many China-related topics: Shangri-Li, the Chinese paradise on Earth, Chinese gardens, ways of celebrating Spring Festival in Beijing, Chinese festive cuisine and Peking Opera. Also many people decided to learn about their Chinese zodiac signs and get an individual horoscope for the upcoming year. The Confucian Language Workshops, held every year during the New Year's celebration, once again proved themselves to be an extremely effective tool of convincing Polish people that Chinese language is beautiful and not-that-hard to learn. The gala consisted of a dynamic and colourful martial arts shows, multimedia presentations about Chinese culture and show of Chinese minorities traditional clothes. Of course, the most important and impressive show was the traditional Lion Dance however some of the spectators claimed that the Dragon Chasing a Pearl Dance was even more amazing. All those who could not come to Wieliczka for the main Spring Festival event, had an opportunity to take part in celebrations in other places. The Kijow Cinema became a headquarters of the Chinese Culture Festival for two days. The Confucius Institute organized there many workshops on language, calligraphy and tea, lectures on China and slide shows of photos taken in China by the CI's employees and friends. Films by Zhang Yimou and Wong Karwai were shown during the movie marathon. Also another final gala was held there and the audience enjoyed traditional Lion and Dragon dances, kungfu and taiji shows, Chinese folk dances and Chinese music (including the live Peking Opera!). Spring Festival was celebrated also in the 'Kolanko Nr 6' caffee on the Kazimierz district of Krakow. During lectures the experts shared their knowledge on traditional Chinese medicine, qigong and fengshui with the numerous guests, who then watched Chinese language class, tea ceremony and calligraphy. A photo exhibition 'Five spices of China' was a part of that event. The great interest shown by many guests during the tea workshops resulted later in opening the Tea Academy. During the Spring Festival period the Confucius Institute cooperated also with the Nowa Huta Cultural Centre. The usual workshops on language and culture were complemented with Chinese massage and make up shows, as well as with exhibitions of photos from China and tasting of Chinese dishes prepared by the Beijing – most famous Chinese restaurant in Krakow. Chinese students from Krakow helped in organization of an experimental disco with karaoke. Another important event of the Chinese New Year in Krakow was a performance of the Dance Group of Technical University of Beijing. The group, invited by Polish Confucius Institutes came to Poland for a week, visiting not only Krakow but also Opole, Breslau and Poznań. In all the cities the group performed traditional dances of Chinese ethnic minorities, i.e. Uyghur, Tibetan, Korean, Mongolian etc. Apart from all the above mentioned events, some tea and calligraphy workshops were held in the seat of the CI for the whole New Year's period.
TEA ACADEMY
The Confucius Institute in Krakow in cooperation with the partners: Kalmus Consulting and Herba Thea organized two series of workshops about Chinese tea traditions. The experts shared their knowledge and skills concerning various types of tea. During lectures the students gain knowledge about origin of tea, features of different types of tea, legends related to it and ways of tea making in different regions of China. During practical classes they also learned how to store and prepare many kinds of tea, using proper accessories and tasted the high quality teas. Apart from those two series, each lasting one month, Ms Natalia Brede, the main CI's expert, gave two lectures about Chinese ethnic minorities' teas. Ms Brede has been studying the tea art in China and gained a lot of experience in Yunnan tea houses.
STUDENT SEMINAR – „CHINA AT THE BEGINNING OF 21st CENTURY”
Student seminar „China at the beginning of 21st century”, held in April 2010 in the seat of the Confucius Institute in Krakow, attracted many young scholars, interested with a very wide range of topics related to China – from linguistics to social, political and economic issues. On the first day of the seminar the participants discussed i.e. floating population, Chinese influence of China in South-East Asia, distribution of resources from the East Chinese Sea and Chinese army. Especially the last topic became a starting point for many discussions, even after the session. The second day consisted of two panels – during the first one, related to linguistics, lecturers were talking about novelties appearing in Chinese language in recent years i.e. the Internet slang, simplification of Chinese language and problems caused by it and the graphic functions of Chinese characters. The second one consisted of lectures about economic and social modernization in China and changes in law and financial systems. The Chinese director of the Confucius Institute in Krakow, Mr Sun Zhongli emphasized that such seminars should become an important part of scientific cooperation between scholars from Polish academic centres and are very important for understanding different perspectives of Chinese and Western scholars and Many discussions that took part between lectures proved the importance of a dialogue between those groups.
TIANJINN KUNGFU SHOW
27 kungfu adepts from the Technical University of Tianjin invited by the Confucius Institute in Poznań, came to Poland in May 2010. During the amazing show they demonstrated possibilities of human body and beauty of ancient Chinese martial arts. The group of students from Tianijn won over 130 golden medals, the last six of them during Asian Games and World Kung Fu Competition. In recent years they presented their skills in many countries all over the world, including Canada, USA, Holland, United Kingdom, Japan and Hong Kong. The Polish audience had a unique opportunity to observe many traditional forms of Chinese martial arts, i.e. 'Chen' Style Taiji Fan, long fist, drunken sword, eight extremities, Double Sabers VS. the Spear, Southern fist, mantis style, Eagle’s Claw Quan, Arhat Quan, Saber plus Whip, Eight Diagram Palm and some short plays.
CRACOW [NON] PRESENCE PROJECT
[NON] PRESENCE is the art project of Jan Siuta's Author Gallery, organized by the Confucius Institute in Krakow. The main part of the project was an exhibition of the modern Chinese photography of the 'Assembly Halls' series, taken by Chinese artists – Mu Cheng and Shao Yinong. The exhibition was accompanied by a series of lectures and movies. The photos, exhibited in Krakow in May and June 2010, presented an intriguing view of Chinese social history. Their main motives are spaces being a subject to constant changes; changing their main use, getting forgotten, sometimes being ruined. Those places, however, remained spaces of collective memory where the modernity looked into the mirror of history. The mission of this cultural event was to initiate and promote discussion on modern China and present output of this remote culture to Polish people by application of an interdisciplinary approach. The photographic output of the artists presented in the project was intended as a starting point for a discussion about Chinese reality and its wonders, while lectures and contemporary Chinese movies opened new cognitive perspectives, different than the popular ones like Chinese economic success or the mythical Orient.
A SMALL MAN IN A HUGE COUNTRY
Thanks to initiative of students from the Middle and Far Easter Studies Department, a Children's Day was celebrated in the Confucius Institute in 2010. Honorata Gorgoń and Natalia Ożegalska prepared an exhibition of their own photos of Chinese children. The ceremony was complemented by lectures concerning situation of children in China at the beginning of the 21st century. Among the brought up topics there were i.e. 'Advantages and disadvantages of being the only child in China', 'Girls – the missing sex', 'Orphanages in China' and 'Family Law of the People's Republic of China'.
GARDEN FEAST FESTIVAL
The 5th edition of Garden Feast Festival was held in June 2010 in the Jagiellonian University's Botanical Garden. The Confucius Institute organized two events of the festival. The first one, held in the Primary School No 114, started with a hulusi (a traditional Yunnan instrument, made of gourd) concert by Honorata Gorgoń. Afterwards, Adina Zemanek from the Middle and Far Eastern Studies Department of Jagiellonian University gave a lecture about 'Symbolism of Chinese garden'. Also the opening ceremony of the photo exhibition 'Gardens of Southern China' took place on that day. Three days later in the Confucius Institute's seat three lectures concerning gardens were given: 'Chinese private gardens' by Adina Zemanek, 'A painted garden – designed by a painter' by Marta Kula, a painter and garden designer and 'A fascinating garden – inspired by the Feng Shui Rules' by Lidia Szarek (Feng Shui – Psychology of Space).
SCIENTIFIC SEMINAR – „CHINA IN THE SECURITY POLICY OF THE FAR EAST”
On 24th and 25th June 2010 the oldest building of the Jagiellonian University, Collegium Maius, hosted a scientific seminar organized by the Confucius Institute of Krakow with the Middle and Far East Studies Department of Jagiellonian University. The seminar was planned as a forum where outstanding Polish and Chinese scholars, working on the subject of security of the Asia-Pacific region, would present their opinions and lead a common discussion concerning the way that China perceives its role in the security systems of the Far East and how is perceived by the other countries of the region. Among the subjects being presented there were: evaluation of China's modernization and opening up in the context of international security, analysis of present policy of China and other countries of the region towards domestic and international security threats, systems of collective security in which China is involved and possible security scenarios for the region with a strong emphasis laid on geopolitical changes of the last few decades. Among the lecturers there were professors from Jagiellonian University, University of Warsaw, Beijing Foreign Studies University, National Cheng Kung University and representatives of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The seminar was held under the honorary patronage of the Ambassador of the PRoC to Poland, Mr Sun Yixi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Mr Radek Sikorski and the President of Jagiellonian University, Mr Karol Musioł. The media coverage was provided by Renmin Ribao, Chinese Radio International, Radio Krakow and Portal Foreign Affairs.
BEIJING SUMMER CAMP
In July 2011 a group of pupils from schools of Krakow went to China together with Małgorzata Krzyśko from the Confucius Institute of Krakow. They took part in the summer camp organized by the Beijing University of Foreign Languages for children from all over the world. A week spent in China was an opportunity to study Chinese language and discover interesting aspects of Chinese culture by taking part in lessons of martial arts, calligraphy, painting, cut-outs, and Peking opera. They also visited the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Olympic Green and museums. They met Chinese cuisine not only during consumption, as all the students had an opportunity to learn how to prepare traditional Chinese dumplings. Krzysztof Węgrzyn describes his impressions on China: 'Of among the many impressive things that I remember from China – amazing buildings, faces and events, the most unforgettable is the Chinese cuisine. The most surprising was the rich?? of tastes and smells, present during every meal, even the simplest one. It could be said that the variety of those dishes represented the variety of China. No monotony was present among aromas, shapes, and colours. For a long time I will be recalling the sweet and sour sauce, lotus root, tens ways of preparing vegetables and the remarkable Beijing duck.' The other student, Filip Bielik, discovered something different about China:'After seeing the Olympic Green in Beijing, Great Wall and acrobatics show, I understood what's the real power of China. The cooperation and persistence are those values that let China achieve so many goals, both in the past as now. The lessons of calligraphy, painting, Chinese language and kungfu made me realize that without patience, persistence and cooperation with master, teacher and other people one could not achieve too much'.
CHINESE WEEK „THE BOOK OF CHANGES”
The Chinese Week, based on the Book of Changes, was formally inaugurated at the end of November 2010 in the Primary School No. 114 in Krakow. The ceremony was opened by the principal of School, Ms Bożena Mikoś, and the former director of Confucius Institute, Bogdan Zemanek. It was accompanied by a programme prepared by teachers and students of the school. Mr Sun Zhongli, the Chinese director of the Institute, became a celebrity of the evening after reciting Polish and Chinese poetry. But he was not the only performer – the others presented Chinese songs and Polish translation of both classical and modern Chinese poetry. During the last part of the ceremony the audience watched dance show and martial arts show, performed by the Krakow Academy of Martial Arts. The goal of that event was to promote Chinese culture and language among children, stimulate mind-broadening and openness towards different cultures. The Chinese Week was only the starting point of the presence of Chinese culture in that school, as after the event lessons of Mandarin would be taught there. A few pupils who took part in the educational trip to China for foreigners, presented their impressions after visiting the Far East for the first time. Their stories were complemented by a film made by their Chinese guardians. The audience watched the children discovering the different culture with its arts (dance, martial arts and theatre) and historic monuments during many trips. On the occasion of the Chinese Week many pupils presented their works, inspired by Chinese culture. Also many informative boards were place around the school to let the children gain more knowledge on China.
