Confucius Institute at Troy University Attended the Spring Festival Celebration in Birmingham

At 10:55 a.m. on Feb. 19th, 2011, the grand Spring Festival Celebration of the Rabbit Year had pulled open in Birmingham, Alabama. Confucius Institute at Troy University (CIT) was invited to attend this pageant.

The Spring Festival Celebration started with a Dragon Dance, a mighty dragon flying into the auditorium with the drum beat, going straight to the stage, which had won a big round of applause. The following programs were wonderful and full of Chinese elements, such as face changing in Sichuan Opera, local comedy, Chinese national dance and so on. The celebration attracted not only Chinese people, but also many Americans. Confucius Institute at Troy University displayed many books on Chinese language learning and Chinese Culture and great decorations such as lanterns and paper umbrellas, which attracted many people who came and consulted Chinese folk customs and Chinese culture with CIT members.

The celebration is also a pageant for overseas Chinese in America, who all came with their families to the celebration. They attached great importance to their children’s Chinese learning; therefore they came and picked up many great books at CIT’s booths among which Chinese learning cards Hafala and Chinese character animation DVD were most popular and were all clear in a sweep. Many Americans were interested in Chinese learning too, and they picked Chinese character poker and Chinese facial mask in opera. CIT members introduced Chinese culture on Spring Festival enthusiastically to their American friends, including the origin, the customs and the traditional food of Spring Festival, which allowed them to truly enjoy a Chinese New Year in a pleasant ambience.