CIG tells Chinese stories in Geneva during the Spring Festival
Xinhua Silk Road, Geneva, February 14th (Reporter: Wang Qibing) “When my daughter saw me learning Chinese, she insisted on learning to write Chinese characters, so I sent her to this Chinese school,” said Charlotte Serra, accompanying her 8-year-old daughter at the lively CIG Chinese New Year event booth in the Balexert shopping center in Geneva. The mother and daughter deliberately wore red Chinese-style dresses. CIG principal Mrs. Sun Zhimin picked a smiling dragon mascot from a pile and gave it to the blonde little girl, saying to the reporter, “This is our school’s student, the dragon mascot must be given as a gift.”
At the time of the Chinese Lunar New Year, the large indoor shopping center Balexert near Geneva Airport and CIG jointly held a “Chinese New Year” display event. The former posted the entire schedule for February 1st to 3rd on its official website with a festive red tone and dragon pattern pages.
In the bright atrium area of the shopping center, the Chinese New Year celebration was open to the public for free. Red lanterns, dragon mascots, bamboo screens decorated with the character ‘福’ (fu) for happiness and large-scale Chinese calligraphy served as backdrop scenes. Ancient Chinese musical instruments, tea tables and desks were arranged in front. Chinese families who heard about the event and shoppers passing by gathered in this public space. Some sat down to write Chinese calligraphy or enjoy Chinese tea, while others stopped to appreciate live performances of ancient Chinese musical instruments.
“I’m visiting Geneva for the first time, and it’s a bit surprising to see local elders come to listen to Chinese classical music,” said Jingming, the guqin performer dressed in traditional Hanfu, specially invited by CIG principal Sun Zhimin, with a prominent “京” signboard. Over the course of three days, she performed guqin, xiao, and xun brought from Beijing for the audience. “Music is truly the best language. Sharing Chinese classical music here as part of our culture helps people connect on a deeper level.”
On Saturday afternoon, shortly after two o’clock, lion dancers appeared again, drawing an even larger crowd. Children were lifted up, sitting on adults’ shoulders. More people took the escalator to the upper level to watch from above: two Chinese lions in red and dark green, dancing closely to the drum beats around the venue. Wherever they approached, young people and children burst into surprised cheers.”
“We hold a Spring Festival cultural exhibition every year. It used to be held in Nyon in the canton of Vaud. This year, it’s the first time we’ve moved it to Geneva’s largest shopping center,” Sun Zhimin told reporters. “Last year, during the Spring Festival, we felt that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the promotion of Chinese culture entered a relatively quiet period. So, we thought about how to let more people feel the vitality of Chinese culture again this year. When we shared our ideas with the manager of Balexert, we immediately received a positive response.”
Sun Zhimin’s “breaking boundaries” initiative did not stop at these three days of events. On the eve of the Chinese Spring Festival, her photo appeared on the cover of Coop, a well-established Swiss supermarket’s publication. This is said to be the largest circulation publication in Switzerland. Both the German and French editions of the current issue featured a four-page interview with CIG principal Sun Zhimin, introducing Chinese New Year culture. She shared stories of her childhood celebrating the Spring Festival in Shanghai. One quote from the interview was: “A Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner is synonymous with sharing.”
In Sun Zhimin’s view, there is a positive correlation between the influence of Chinese culture and the number of students in the Chinese school. She hopes to expand the influence of the Spring Festival through various means to gradually bring back lost students.
Charlotte’s reason for learning Chinese is related to her work. She told reporters, “I work in the pharmaceutical industry, as a product quality manager for factories in Singapore, China, Switzerland and other countries. Many of our products are made in China.” Since 2019, Charlotte has been learning Chinese remotely at a university in Beijing. Unexpectedly, her young daughter was influenced and showed a great love for Chinese characters, leading them to eventually encounter the offline CIG Chinese language school. As they left the event booth, Sun Zhimin first bid farewell to them in French, then prompted, “Let’s say goodbye in Chinese this time: 下次再见 (See you next time).”