On June 9, 2018, the 13th JLU Int’l Cultural Festival, with the theme of “Yong JLU and Diversified Culture”, was launched in the Mayflower Square on JLU Central Campus. Attracting over 5,000 students and teachers from JLU, this cultural festival was prepared by over 1,000 int’l students from 43 countries.
The biggest difference of this festival from previous ones was its emphasis on Chinese culture and cultural confidence. Besides int’l students, students from JLU societies joined the exhibition and performance, such as JLU Martial Art Association, Peking Opera Club, Lanting Chinese Calligraphy Club, Bailu Han Chinese Costume Club, etc.
The opening ceremony of the festival started on 13:00 in the afternoon. Li Meihua, dean of the College of International Education, presided over the ceremony and Zheng Weitao, JLU vice president and Ou Shuo, vice director of Foreign Affairs Office of Changchun Municipal Government attended. In his address, Vice President Zheng said the cultural festival would build a platform for strengthening the cultural exchanges between Chinese and overseas students on JLU campus and helping with building an internationalized campus, and would offer a good chance for Changchun people to know more about diversified world cultures. Vice Director Ou thanked JLU for the chance and said the festival was a embodiment of JLU’s concept of opening and internationalized campus.
The activities of the festival fell into three categories – cultural show, cultural performance and food sharing. Dressed up in their finest clothes, int’l students demonstrated to JLU faculty and students and people in town their countries’ natural attractions, history, culture, and folk customs. Beautiful girls and handsome young men from Mongolia, Vietnam, India, Mali, Palestine, Ukraine, etc. performed wonderful singing and dancing programs which aroused rounds of cheers and applause. “Letter Dance” performed by JLU Art Troupe pushed the joyous atmosphere of the festival to the climax.
Beside performance, int’l students also cooked their local food, which attracted big crowds to their stalls. Students could try delicacies from different countries; at the same time, they could get “mini passport” and “travel among countries”. The 2,000 mini passport prepared for the festival were issued within 3 hours.
Baolin, an int’l student from France, joined the festival for the 3rd time this year. As a representative int’l student, she said: “JLU cultural festival is becoming better and better each year. I haven’t joined in such cultural event in France, but I can demonstrate our culture here in JLU, including our clothes, food, routine life, etc. At the same time, we can experience a lot of Chinese cultures here. It is also a good chance to know Chinese culture and communicate with Chinese students.”
The cultural festival promoted the understanding and cultural exchanges among teachers and students, so that they gained knowledge about world cultures and disseminated Chinese traditional culture as well.
