International students of the China Studies course held a Chinese cultural event on campus to host a German delegation on April 14. The event is designed to provide international students from both Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS) and German Graduate School of Management and Law (GGS), a rare chance to look into one of the world’s oldest culture and forge lasting cross-border friendship. Event guests also included PHBS Assistant Dean Huang Haifeng, PHBS Professor Gerhard Stahl,  and Professor Geng Xu, founding dean of Peking University Environment and Energy School, as well as some PHBS faculty and staff.

The activities commenced with an oil painting exhibition by the famous artist Yang Yongzhi followed by a welcome ceremony featuring warm greetings to GGS delegation and a brief introduction about PHBS. After the welcome speeches, the activities continued at WeSpace, where the guests and the hosts were treated to beautiful performing arts from various Chinese artists.

The first act was a dance and kung fu performance by the children from the Shenzhen Experimental Kindergarden, one of the most recognized pre-schools in Shenzhen. The second performance was a Chinese traditional dance by Xiaozhong Li. Her choreography mixed classical Chinese music with elements of both traditional and modern dance form.
The highlight of the event was an introduction to Chinese calligraphy by Mr. Feng Shancang, a famous calligrapher in China. Chinese calligraphy is an important part of Chinese culture and the artist introduced everybody to this world by showing how deft brush strokes create gorgeous characters on hand made paper.


Another art that the guests got a chance to experience was traditional Chinese paper cutting by Yuan Chenxiang , who is among Sichuan’s finest special cutting artists. He has been making special formatted paper cuts for over 30 years.
Moreover, guests also enjoyed the Piba performance by Ms. Lu Liping, who rendered a beautiful song about an ancient battle in China. The Piba is a Chinese STRING instrument and has been played for more than 2000 years old. It originated in the northern dynasty and was introduced to China through the Silk Road. 

 
The cultural event ended with the audience getting to savour some modern art in China. The photographic work by Mr. Cheng Dong depicted rural China and Chinese people's lives. As one of the most influential photographers of Sichuan province, Dong has been taking pictures for over 30 years . His most famous art work are  “Tibetan Child” and“Reliance”, with the former capturing a young Tibetan child and the latter featuring a blind man and a deaf man.
All of these different performances were accompanied by traditional Chinese tea offered by Ms. Wang Shiyi.  Apart from being an important element of Chinese medicine, tea is a popular beverage in China . She explained about traditional Chinese tea ceremonies, which consists of 3 steps:  pouring the tea in a small glass, then pouring it in the bigger class, smelling the fragrance and finally drinking it.


The cultural event concluded with a dinner at the campus canteen. The dinner promoted food safety in China and was hosted with the mentality to share a more responsible form of food management, processing and consumption. The delicious spread of traditional Chinese food offered the German delegation and PHBS student to interact with each other.
By Chiara Christoffersen
photographer: Eleonora Barbieri
Edited by Annie Jin