On the afternoon of March 28, Peng Liyuan, wife of President Xi Jinping, met with representatives of teachers and students of the German KDU Chinese Chorus who were visiting China at Beijing No. 35 Middle School.
Peng Liyuan extended a warm welcome to the teachers and students of the KDU Chinese Choir for their second visit to China, and congratulated the choir on its ten years of persistence in conveying friendship through singing and its fruitful achievements. Peng Liyuan said that with the joint efforts of everyone, the choir has built a bridge for cultural exchanges between China and Germany and has become a bright business card of China-Germany friendship. I hope that students will use the golden key of music to unlock the new world of Chinese, feel the charm of Chinese culture in beautiful melodies, and become the new generation of envoys of China-Germany friendship.
Chorus Association Chairman Milmann thanked Peng Liyuan for her continued concern and support for the choir, saying that through "singing to learn Chinese", more and more German teenagers understand and love China, and they will continue to actively build a bridge of exchange between music and Chinese. , to continuously enhance mutual understanding and friendship between German and Chinese teenagers. The student representatives of the
choir reported to Peng Liyuan in Chinese on their studies and experiences, as well as their love for China, and expressed that they would continue to work hard to learn Chinese well.
Peng Liyuan interacted cordially with teachers and students. She praised the students for speaking Chinese better and better, expressed her belief that this trip to China will further deepen their understanding of China, and encouraged the students to share their experiences and experiences in China with their family and friends after returning home. Feel it and continue to write good stories about China-Germany friendship.
The students of the choir presented Peng Liyuan with a commemorative photo album recording the 10 years of friendly exchanges between Peng Liyuan and the choir. Peng Liyuan presented a piece of Chinese calligraphy to the students, encouraging them to make continuous progress in learning Chinese and reach a higher level.
The students sang Chinese and German songs together and won warm applause.
KDU Chinese Chorus is a non-profit public welfare organization that carries out "sing and learn Chinese" activities for German teenagers. It aims to promote Sino-German people-to-people exchanges and is actively committed to enhancing the friendship between the two countries in the fields of language and culture. In March 2014, Peng Liyuan visited the Bole Gymnasium in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. At that time, the teachers and students of the school welcomed the Chinese dignitaries with warm applause and sang "Let's Swing the Oars" in Chinese. , and performed the Chinese sketch drama "Meng Mu's Three Moves".
Last year, teachers and students of KDU Chinese Chorus sang the Chinese song "Let the World Be Full of Love" together to cheer up the people of Wuhan who are fighting the epidemic. Why does a German middle school thousands of miles away have a Chinese choir? What is the connection between this school named "Bole" and China? What special feelings do German teachers and students have towards China?
Using singing as a link to deepen the friendship between China and Germany
The Bole Gymnasium located in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany has a history of more than a thousand years and is one of the 12 oldest public liberal arts secondary schools in Germany.
Ron, the principal of Germany's KDU Senior Liberal Arts Middle School, said that KDU's Senior Liberal Arts Middle School had a close relationship with China more than 20 years ago. In 1995, Bole Senior High School of Arts and Sciences in Germany established a Chinese interest group, and in 2008 it set up a high school Chinese language credit course. It became the only school in Essen that offered Chinese courses and included them as subjects in the German high school graduation examination.
Dong Qi, former Minister Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Germany, said that Germany’s Bole High School has a strong desire to strengthen Chinese language teaching and exchanges with China. The Chinese and German governments have signed a language teaching cooperation agreement to send language teaching volunteers to each other's primary and secondary schools. Therefore, Chinese teaching volunteers come to the school to teach every year to support their Chinese teaching work.
The Chinese choir of the German Bole High School of Arts and Sciences has participated in many cultural exchange activities held between China and Germany. Their passionate singing was left behind in the 2014 "China-German Language Year" and the 2016 "China-German Youth Exchange Year" activities. Every performance experience left beautiful youthful memories in the hearts of these German students and sown the seeds of Sino-German friendship.
Heart-to-Heart Connectivity Students have become the basis for people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two countries
It is reported that Bole Senior High School has partner schools in Shanghai and Kunming, and it also regularly organizes teachers and students to study in China.In addition, the school has also maintained exchanges with Wuhan University. Most members of the
choir went to Wuhan to participate in the autumn camp in 2019 and have a strong friendship with Wuhan. Last year, at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, students studying Chinese at Bole Middle School wrote letters of condolence to their Chinese partners in Shanghai and Kunming. Members of the Chinese choir and some students who had participated in the Wuhan Autumn Camp jointly recorded the song " "Let the world be filled with love", expressing love and support for Wuhan through singing. Since then, as the epidemic in Germany has worsened, teachers and students at Wuhan University have also sent blessing videos to cheer for their German friends.
Due to the epidemic, students at the German Bole High School of Arts and Sciences began studying at home in mid-December 2020, and offline exchange activities with China had to be suspended. They are very eager to return to normal life as soon as possible and look forward to coming to China again.
At the suggestion of the choir instructor, the students once again expressed their inner feelings through singing. "After the Epidemic", a song that expresses one's heartfelt feelings, quickly became a hot search list in China. In this regard, Ron said: "We are very happy to see that this video has been well received by Chinese friends. The hearts of the people of China and Germany are closely connected." She also said that after the epidemic is over, the school plans to gradually resume communication with China regular exchange activities, and also hopes that students will have more opportunities to go to China in the future to "see mountains, water, flowers, relatives and friends."
Source丨Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily Online German Vision
