Awarding Ceremony for “Chinese Ambassador’s Scholarship” of Chinese-Hungarian Bilingual School Held Successfully

On December 6th local time, former President of Hungary Medgyessy Péter, Hungarian ambassador to China Pesti Máté and Chinese ambassador to Hungary Duan Jielong attended the awarding ceremony of the “Chinese Ambassador’s Scholarship” and Chinese Culture Day at the Confucius Classroom at the Chinese-Hungarian Bilingual School.

With an abundance of activities, which included the awarding ceremony for the “Chinese Ambassador’s Scholarship”, the exhibition on “China: Five Thousand Years of History and Civilization”, Chinese cultural experience, unveiling of Confucius’s statue and performances, the event enjoyed abundant activities.

The “Chinese Ambassador’s Scholarship”, set up by the Chinese Embassy in Hungary in 2016, aims to encourage more students at the Chinese-Hungarian Bilingual School to learn Chinese to an elevated level. Eight students were awarded the scholarship this time.

The awarding ceremony

At the awarding ceremony, Medgyessy Péter said that China and Hungary have enjoyed unshaken friendship for generations and that more successors are needed. It was a great please to witness the Chinese-Hungarian Bilingual School which he founded to grow ever better and become a significant symbol of the friendship between the two countries. He firmly believed that with joint support from both sides, the school would continue to cultivate more and more talents who are able to promote the development of the friendship between Hungary and China.

Duan Jielong said that the people of China and Hungary enjoy long-term friendship and bilateral relations boast bright prospects and are full of opportunities. It is on the shoulders of our next generations to pass on our friendly cooperation and exchanges. The Chinese-Hungarian Bilingual School is a cradle for the cultivation of talents who will support and promote the friendly relationship between the two countries. For him, it is a tremendous pleasure to attend the awarding ceremony. The scholarship program is established with the purpose of encouraging students to persist in learning Chinese and studying Chinese culture and to turn more young people into talents who are able to promote the friendship between China and Hungary.

The exhibition of “China: Five Thousand Years of History and Civilization” displayed craft works made by Hungarian children who love Chinese culture. Works in display includes paintings of ancient Chinese pavilions, paintings of the Zodiac and yin-yang and the five elements, clay-made Terra-Cotta Warriors, pandas made in black and white rice, embroidery of Chinese images in silks and other works. Ambassadors were attracted by those craft works and amazed by the innovation and imagination of the children as well as their novel perspectives of viewing China.

The exhibition of “China: Five Thousand Years of History and Civilization”

The ambassadors went on to explore the classroom and took part in the activity of Chinese cultural experience. They first watched how the children drew pandas. The children, with a Chinese brush in hand, carefully depicted pandas on their paper. Very soon, several lively and naive pandas were seen on the paper. The paper-cutting activity on site was even more exciting. Under the guidance of their teachers, children successfully made paper-cut pandas and presented them to the guests as souvenirs.

Presenting pandas

Paper-cutting activity

On one side of the hall, the Confucius statue was covered with a purple velvet. This statue was presented by Hanban to the independent Confucius Classroom at the Chinese-Hungarian Bilingual School. After wonderful dragon dance and lion dance, Medgyessy Péter and Duan Jielong together unveiled the statue.

Unveiling the Confucius statue

Bilingual singing performance “Spring”

Bilingual singing performance “Little Stars”

Performance of Taiji Fan

Chorus of “Singing the Same Song”

In addition, teachers and students of the Confucius Classroom also presented a wonderful performance. In order to protrude the theme of cultural exchanges, junior children sang children’s folk rhymes in both Hungarian and Chinese. “The branches were full of the sense of spring, and a new poem depicting our homeland”. Their pleasant voice echoed deep into the audience. The performance of Taiji Fan jointly presented by Hungarian and Chinese children was also a spectacle. Their neat attires, vigorous spirits and uniform movements all showed their love and fondness of Chinese martial arts and successfully won the audience’s hearts. Two students who won the second prize in the Tenth “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for Secondary School Students (Hungary) joined hands on the stage and presented the recitation of Snow—to the Tone of Qin Yuan Chun to the audience. The guests present were amazed by their perfect articulation and standard pronunciation. The performance closed with the melody of a violin and the chorus of “Singing the Same Song”.