The New Year’s Gala 2019 for Overseas Students was held in South Activity Center on December 21st. 150 overseas students from 23 countries had a joyous gathering to ring out the old year and ring in the new one, bringing teachers and students a visual and audio feast.
The gala began with a Spanish exuberant dance. Four girls from Kyrgyzstan, wearing red flowers and red dresses, moved with the rhythmic music, which fully showed the Spanish exoticism. With the Kyrgyzstan music, overseas students wearing unique ethnic hats, stepped on brisk dance steps and swung their arms.
Afterwards, various ethnic dances were performed insuccession. Boys from Uzbekistan dressed in handsome white shirts performed their own national dance; two girls from Kyrgyzstan presented excellent national dance as well; and boys from Tajikistan put the atmosphere to a climax with their hot dance, inducing the students offstage to dance with them. Three Lao students, wearing characteristic costumes with Chamba flowers,the national flower of Lao,in hand, demonstrated the graceful dance in melodious songs.
Chinese martial arts were also displayed with oriental charm in foreigners’ performance. Martial arts team of overseas students in red and yellow costumes appeared on the stage from both flanks. After showing the basic movements of kick, hit and fall, girls held fans and boys waved swords to display their performance. The lofty sentiments of Chinese martial arts can be found in their softness and hardness.
After the dancing, overseas students,along with Chinese students, performed the poem Prelude toWaterMelodyby Su Shi, drawing the audience in deep homesickness. And the gala ended with the enthusiastic dance Flashmob.
“The gala is pervaded with strong cultural atmosphere and ethnic characteristics that enables us to better understand the foreign cultures and enable overseas students to have a deeper understanding of Chinese culture. This is a great way to promote cultural exchanges,” said ZhongMeiqi, a freshman from the School of Business.
(Translated by Chen Meijun)
