On the afternoon of April 19th, the Confucius Institute of the University of Miskolc (hereinafter referred to as CIUM) held an event to celebrate the International Chinese Language Day, with the theme of “Sino-Hungarian Cultural Exchange: Reciting Chinese and Hungarian Classical Poetry”. Directors, teachers and students, over 50 of them, from China and Hungary gathered together to celebrate the 15th United Nations’ “International Chinese Language Day”.
For this event, CIUM has chosen several different iconic scenes in the city of Miskolc to set off the text with scenes, embody emotions in the scenes, and use the scenes to express emotions. The Chinese Director of CIUM, together with the teachers, guided students to recite the poem “If I were a Torrent” by the Hungarian poet Petőfi Sándor by the Miskolc TV tower. By the peach blossoms at the bottom of the mountain, by the banks of the river Sajó and in the town square, the students recited in Chinese “Peach Blossoms in the Temple of Great Forest”, “Seeing Meng Haoran Off at Yellow Crane Tower”, “A Spring Morning” and “You Are the April of the World”. In the end, all the teachers and students who participated in the activity recited Petőfi’s well known poem “Freedom and Love” in both Chinese and Hungarian languages in front of the memorial sculpture in Petőfi Square located in the center of the city. They all recited the poem together, felt the beautiful spring day and sincerely said “Hello, International Chinese Language Day” in unison. The event attracted a lot of local Hungarians, who were very interested in our Chinese Language Day activities.
During the International Chinese Language Day, everyone experienced the infinite charm of the splendid cultures of China and Hungary through reciting Chinese and Hungarian classic poetry. The students also expressed that they would continue to study Chinese language and culture and learn to write poems in Chinese. Sino-Hungarian cultural exchange has a long and lasting history, and CIUM hopes that through this activity, it will promote students’ understanding of Chinese language, stimulate their interest in learning Chinese culture, attract more Hungarian friends to join in Chinese language learning, and further promote Sino-Hungarian cultural exchange and mutual understanding.
