Performance Tour by University Arts Troupe to Celebrate 10th Anniversary of Founding of CI

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of Confucius Institute (CI), a group of 20 members of Zhejiang University Wenqin Arts Troupe, sent by CI Headquarters/Hanban and invited by 5 Confucius Institutes located in the New England region, took a 11-day performance tour from September 19th to September 29th 2014 and met warm welcome and gained high appraise from American teachers and students and local Chinese American community.

The tour included seven performances in theUniversityofNew Hampshire,UniversityofRhode Island,CentralConnecticutStateUniversity,TolmanHigh School,PortsmouthHigh School,SandwichHigh Schooland the city ofProvidence, the capital of the state ofRhode Island. The troupe was made up of faculty members and students from Wenqin Dance Troupe, Wenqin Traditional Instruments Orchestra, Wanyun Peking Opera Troupe and the Department of Traditional Chinese Sports,SchoolofEducation.

The delegation successfully brought to their audiences wonderful performances with a variety of programs, including traditional Chinese music, folk dance, Wushu and Peking Opera etc in spite of many difficulties, such as jet leg and giving performances with very different stage conditions.

The audiences were reluctant to leave long after every show, many going up on the stages to take souvenir photos with the performers to show

September 27th was the Confucius Institute Day, so the five CIs in the New England region jointly held celebration atWaterplacePark, the center ofProvidence. The performers quickly adjusted their original plan to the actual conditions of the open-air site and integrated the beautiful foliage scenery ofRhode Islandinto their performance as the natural setting for the show, which made the whole performance a bigger success. The President of Bryant University, deans of the Confucius Institutes and officials from the Chinese consulate attended the performance together with a lot of local audiences.

The troupe came back home with many honors and happy memories on Sept. 29th.

(written by Ni Baihui and Liu Xianglu; translated by XU Xiaohang)