Chinese New Year “Zodiac” Cultural Festival in Geneva
From February 1st to 3rd, 2024, the “Year of the Dragon Chinese New Year” series of traditional cultural activities, hosted by the Chinese Institute Geneva Foundation in Switzerland (hereinafter referred to as CIG), kicked off enthusiastically at Balexert, Geneva’s largest commercial center. The three-day event attracted over a thousand participants from various groups including Chinese students and parents, overseas Chinese, local residents and more. This Spring Festival cultural feast, which was enjoyed by both Chinese and foreign nationals, has become an indispensable mission for CIG as a “cultural ambassador” for China in Switzerland.
On Saturday, February 3rd, at 11:00 a.m., the event officially began. CIG Director CHU Jun and Principal SUN Zhimin warmly greeted everyone and extended their Chinese New Year blessings for the Year of the Dragon. Shortly after, the lion dance and drumming began, drawing the crowd in the entire mall together instantly. Whistles, applause, and laughter filled the air. An ink lion and a red lion took turns to appear, sometimes winking joyfully at children, sometimes jumping high to grab red envelopes, prompting the audience to grab their phones to capture these lively and amusing moments. People of all ages, genders, and races, regardless of skin color or ethnicity, were all immersed in the strong and festive atmosphere of Chinese New Year at that moment, expressing unity, friendship, happiness, and health. They eagerly anticipated the new year, warding off evil spirits, welcoming blessings, and embracing the beautiful wishes for fortune and prosperity.
As the closing time of the mall approached, the crowd participating in the event showed no signs of dispersing. The staff and volunteers of CIG were busy throughout the day, neglecting meals and drinks, guiding activities, and explaining traditional customs to everyone. Both young and old, Chinese and foreign friends alike, were all satisfied, expressing their intentions to attend future activities by CIG again next year.
Beauty of the East
From Beijing, the guqin and xiao performer Jingming traveled a long distance to Geneva to inject the beauty of traditional Chinese music into the series of traditional cultural activities organized by CIG. Whether it’s the elegant and graceful sky-blue modern Hanfu or the rich and passionate Chinese red embroidered jacket, the soothing melodies of high mountains and flowing water enter the ears, while the elegant and classical scenes unfold before the eyes. A staff member from a nearby shop specifically informed CIG that she heard unique Eastern music from afar and rushed to watch as soon as her work ended.
During this event, Jingming also provided CIG staff and audiences with basic knowledge about the guqin. The guqin is three feet and six inches long, symbolizing the 365 days of the year; it has thirteen positions on the strings, representing the twelve lunar months plus the intercalary month; its round surface and flat bottom conform to the ancient Chinese concept of “heaven round, earth square.” The guqin, like a person, consists of the head, shoulder, and foot, and the two ends of the guqin are called “dragon pool” and “phoenix pond”, corresponding to the Yin and Yang and the Five Elements. The guqin is the most representative instrumental music of traditional Chinese music, embodying the unity of heaven, earth and humanity, and it is considered the foremost among the “Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar”, which include the guqin (zither), qi (strategy board game), shu (calligraphy), and hua (painting).
Jingming leads a Chinese traditional music band called “Yue Sheng Sheng Orchestra” in Beijing, which sows the seeds of guqin among many listeners. Before the event, Jingming, along with CIG, played the guqin for all the teachers and students of a public primary school in Geneva, sparking the interest of many children. Jingming stated that the guqin is particularly suitable for overseas Chinese, especially parents, as it doesn’t require a music theory background to learn. Guqin scores are often written in “jianzi pu” (simplified notation), using Chinese characters, making it accessible to anyone who can read Chinese characters. This is Jingming’s first visit to Switzerland for activities promoting Chinese traditional culture and music. CIG will continue to support Jingming and her orchestra, bringing more young artists of Chinese traditional culture to Switzerland, nurturing the spring shoots of Chinese culture in Switzerland.
Following the pentatonic scale of traditional Chinese music (gong, shang, jue, zhi, yu), booths showcasing tea ceremonies, traditional Chinese painting, calligraphy, seal engraving, handicrafts and more are arranged in a row. Each year’s cultural activities during the Spring Festival gather a shared emotional connection, especially among overseas Chinese, towards traditional Chinese art forms. Among these, the art of tea ceremony stands out as one of the most “fragrant and sweet” forms of art. Iron Goddess of Mercy, Pre-Ming Dragon Well, White Down Silver Needle… The names of Chinese teas carry the origin, season, leaf shape, or auspicious meanings. A young lady who lingered at the tea ceremony booth couldn’t help but express her lamentation about why Switzerland couldn’t offer such good Chinese tea! The beauty of tea is indeed widely known among people.
Ms. YANG Zhihua, an art major with extensive experience in planning and design, has published her own illustration collection in Switzerland. Every year’s Chinese New Year cultural festival is her time to showcase her skills. Everyone warmly calls her Zhihua. This year’s dragon seal engraving was designed and produced by her in advance. Both children and adults can experience traditional rubbings and learn about the classic image construction of Chinese dragons, which include the lion head, snake body, eagle claws, and goldfish tail. At the event, Zhihua and Ms. SUN Fei also presented a “Colorful Chinese Dragon” painting performance for the audience. The scene of the two painting dragons heralding the spring depicted a duet in Chinese painting.
Chinese beauty encompasses both movement and stillness, in sound as well as form. Everyone can participate, and through their hearts, eyes, hands and ears, they can all experience the beauty of traditional Chinese art.
Dragon Soars in the Spring Festival
The traditional cultural activities are the highlights of CIG’s year-end, with a taste of the “New Year” already permeating the January Chinese classrooms. In the native language immersion class taught by Teacher WANG Cuizhu, students often unknowingly learn Chinese characters through traditional paper-cutting, painting, and handicrafts. This time, Teachers Cuizhu and HUANG Yuna unleashed the magic of the “Chinese Culture Handicraft Dictionary” and spontaneously created “Spring” and “2024 Little Dragon” paper-cuttings more suitable for young children, adding a different kind of fun to the children’s journey into Chinese culture. Teacher Eyel Deg, who goes by Gege, is a Chinese teacher from Inner Mongolia. Volunteering at the event provided her and colleagues who don’t often meet an opportunity to enjoy the New Year atmosphere together. On February 5th, CIG hosted Dragon Year special celebration activities for primary and secondary school students at the Nations campus of the Geneva International School, followed by activities at the LGB campus on February 6th, truly summoning the arrival of spring with the Chinese New Year and the spirit of spring.
Teacher CHEN Yuran has always been active both on and behind the scenes of CIG. A foreign couple of students of Teacher Chen, who have been to China and can write Chinese characters, arrived at the booth early on the first day of the event and picked up a brush to showcase their calligraphy skills. Teacher Zhihua brought the Chinese classroom directly to the scene, with students dressed in festive Chinese New Year attire, becoming a beautiful scenery of “spring in full bloom” at the event venue. Additionally, a Thai employee working at the Balexert shopping center were attracted to the booth and immediately joined the volunteer team without hesitation. Engaging in simple Chinese conversations and being able to write some Chinese characters, everyone immersed themselves in the peaceful and joyful atmosphere.
One of the most popular activities at the event is writing Chinese names for foreign friends. With red paper adorned with gold foil, brushes, ink, and inkstones, these familiar symbols of the New Year transformed into calligraphy strokes writing names like “Aya”, “Camille”, “Catherine” and “Isabella” in Chinese characters, imprinting wonderful memories of the Chinese New Year for our foreign friends. In addition, writing “福” (fu) meaning “good fortune” and “龙” (long) meaning “dragon” was highly welcomed, allowing both Chinese and foreign friends to write them and take the blessings of “福” and “龙” home.
CIG cultivates the fertile fields of Chinese culture
This year’s Spring Festival cultural event has garnered attention from various sectors of Swiss society. The venue, Balexert shopping center, had already announced the event time and schedules on its official website. During the event, the SBB official app homepage set up a special advertising space to showcase the event. Following CIG’s inaugural Rabbit Year Spring Festival event held at the La Combe commercial center in Nyon, Switzerland in 2023, this 2024 event in Geneva has taken things to a higher level in terms of scale and impact. In early October 2023, CIG’s preparatory team already began contacting the venue and designing the event segments, as well as procuring zodiac mascots. This 2024 event concluded successfully, and the liaison person from Balexert was pleasantly surprised. They didn’t expect the Chinese New Year and Chinese culture to be so attractive! They hope that CIG will return to Balexert next year to hold exhibitions and activities.
Through the window of learning Chinese in the classroom, hundreds of students and their parents have found a valuable forest of Chinese culture in Switzerland, drawing nourishment from traditional culture and laying the emotional foundation for the next generation of Chinese civilization. For many local friends who have visited China and have knowledge of the country, this event has once again stirred their wonderful memories of the ancient oriental nation. Getting to know CIG is like finding a door that is ready to open at any time, once again connecting them to vibrant contemporary China.
CIG Principal SUN Zhimin, as the representative of CIG and this event, was honored as the cover figure of the COOP magazine published on February 6th, 2024. CIG, based in Switzerland, is committed to promoting Chinese culture and telling the real and vibrant China, a concept that all faculty and volunteers unanimously uphold. It is also a place where everyone dedicates their time and energy. Living abroad, facing many challenges and opportunities, using Chinese as a medium to cultivate cultural fields together is everyone’s common choice. CIG opens its arms and warmly welcomes everyone, regardless of where they come from, what language they speak, or what beliefs they hold.
