Introduction of Chinese Language Day and 24 Solar Terms
April 20th, 2022 was the 13th UN Chinese Language Day. In celebration, The Permanent Delegation of China to UNESCO and the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO held events on this meaningful day. Chinese is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, all of which have their own "International Language Day" to celebrate multilingualism and culture diversity.
April 20th was also the 3rd International Chinese Day. The Centre for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC), ChinesePlus and global partners held a series of activities to display the charm of Chinese language. With the theme of "Chinese Language: Together for a Bright Future", Chinese language learners and institutes across the world celebrated the festival on that day.
Why was April 20th chosen as the Chinese Language Day? Because this is a special day, namely Grain Rain (谷雨, gǔyǔ), pays tribute to Cangjie (仓颉, cāngjié), the historian of the Yellow Emperor Xuan Yuan, who created the original Chinese pictographs during the rainy season. Grain Rain is one of the 24 solar terms in the Chinese lunar calendar. It is the sixth solar term in the year and the last one of spring. Each year during this period as the weather turns warmer, crop production benefits from increased rainfall, especially in southern China.
China's 24 solar terms were listed as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage in 2016. For more than 2000 years, they have profoundly influenced all areas of Chinese social life. The system includes abundant knowledge, containing traditional philosophy of the nature. It not only records changes in weather and seasonal order, but also embeds traditional wisdom from ancient common people in their daily lives. It testifies the diversity of human culture and highlights the practice of the Chinese concept of respecting nature, and world view of balancing Yin and Yang.
24 Solar Terms preserved the common value of the Chinese in the agriculture era. It has kept close connections with Chinese people in their modern daily lives, such as food therapy and wellness. For example, on the Beginning of Summer (立夏, lìxià), which passed this year on May 5th, people normally eat eggs and play interesting games such as Egg Fighting that the kids love. Will the Egg Fighting games possibly be adopted and used in your Chinese language classrooms? You might create more vivid and impressive activities when you flexibly play the role of folk activities such as Egg fighting or Egg decorating in your classroom.
24 Solar Terms help the students develop ecological awareness of how to protect the Earth's environment and nature. The opening ceremony of Beijing Winter Olympics 24 Solar Terms short film unveiled the beauty of nature. Save a time slot to enjoy it together with your students. Try to find out the key words of characteristics on 21st June, Summer Solstice (夏至, xiàzhì), which should be Winter Solstice (冬至, dōngzhì) in New Zealand since we are in the Southern Hemisphere. A saying goes that it is a ritual to eat dumplings on the Winter Solstice while noodles on the Summer Solstice. This could be developed to an exciting comparison topic combining language and culture together.
You may find more resources about UN language Days in this link. Through which you could understand why Arabic Day was set on 18th of December, English and Spanish Days both on the 23rd of April while French Day is the 20th of March, and, lastly, Russian Day on 6th June. This is one of the unique ways to celebrate multilingualism.
The famous scholar, Dr. Han Kesheng published several books related to 24 Solar Terms and poems. The interview in this link explains how the wisdom of 24 Solar Terms is still beneficial to the world today. His series articles of 24 Solar Terms published on the website xinmin.cn will enhance our understanding of the live traditional culture more deeply.
- Lan Dai, National Language Adviser, Tui Tuia Learning Circle
Duānwǔ jié kuàilè“: Happy Dragon Boat Festival
Da jia hao!! As you all know China is an agricultural society. Therefore, we celebrate many occasions according to Lunar calendar or Chinese Calendar (农历 Nónglì- means Farmer’s calendar - literally!)
Today, I would like to share one of the special festivals with you- 端午节Duānwǔ jié - Dragon Boat Festival. Many Chinese believe that the Dragon Boat Festival originated in ancient China in 278 BCE. The hero in this story is named Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan was a Chinese poet and politician in the State of Chu during the Warring States period. His loyalty to King of Chu was not reciprocated and he was exiled by the King. During his exile, Qu Yuan composed many poems to express his anger and sorrow towards the King’s sovereignty and people. The King of Chu had chosen to ignore him which eventually led to the subjugation of the state of Chu. Overly saddened by the news, Qu Yuan decided to drown himself in the Miluo River at the age of 61.
The people of Chu tried to save him believing that Qu Yuan was an honourable man. They searched desperately in their boats looking for Qu Yuan but were unable to save him. Every year the Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated to commemorate this attempt at rescuing Qu Yuan. For more details about the story, watch the following video:
Duānwǔ jié Dragon Boat Festival lies on 5th May of the Lunar calendar and is on 3rd June this year. Besides watching the Dragonboat competition on TV, there were two special things we did in my family. My grandmother would make us her world-famous sticky rice dumpling Zong zi. I still regret to this day that I did not learn how to make my favourite Zong zi from her. I found the below video clip that has a similar Zongzi to my grandmother’s recipe. Give it a try if you are interested in making Zong zi!
Our 2nd tradition was Egg Standing. My sisters and I would grab a raw egg, and rush outside between 12 pm to 1pm and try to make the egg stand. The first one to make the egg stand would win. According to dad only at this very time on this very day will the egg stand. This activity was one of my favourite things to do through my childhood.
Give it a try this year! Watch the video below to find out how:
I wish everyone “Duānwǔ jié kuàilè“（Happy Dragon Boat Festival）
-Fiona Yen, Facilitator
A Successful International Cloud Conference
Photo (Above): Teachers at the Chinese Teachers’ Conference in Auckland
Teaching is one of the oldest professions in human history, but teachers are one of the most innovative groups there is. No matter what the world throws at us, we catch it, spin it, and make it work for us.
This year, the 4th Oceania Chinese Teachers’ Conference is one of those successes. With support from TTui Tuia | Learning Circle, Confucius Institute Auckland, the University of Auckland, and the New Zealand Chinese Teachers’ Association, the conference managed to host speakers, presenters and participants from the UK, Australia and all over New Zealand over the two day duration. We met on the cloud, we shared teaching and learning experiences, we discussed the latest research findings and most importantly, we shared our love for the Chinese language and culture learning globally.
Because the world is an ever changing sphere, this puts teachers at the very front of adjusting to change for our learners and ourselves. How to turn unexpected obstacles into an advantageous opportunity reflects what teachers do best: learning how to learn. We are showing our learners that it is alright to not to know everything, but we must have the courage and inquisitive attitude to discover new ways of understanding the world around us. This ability to connect and learn from our colleagues, was what created the success of this international cloud conference.
- Article by Christina Howard-Shi, Teacher at Hillcrest High School
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2022 - Chinese - Term 2 Newsletter Articles
Introduction of Chinese Language Day and 24 Solar Terms
April 20th, 2022 was the 13th UN Chinese Language Day. In celebration, The Permanent Delegation of China to UNESCO and the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO held events on this meaningful day. Chinese is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, all of which have their own "International Language Day" to celebrate multilingualism and culture diversity.
April 20th was also the 3rd International Chinese Day. The Centre for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC), ChinesePlus and global partners held a series of activities to display the charm of Chinese language. With the theme of "Chinese Language: Together for a Bright Future", Chinese language learners and institutes across the world celebrated the festival on that day.
Why was April 20th chosen as the Chinese Language Day? Because this is a special day, namely Grain Rain (谷雨, gǔyǔ), pays tribute to Cangjie (仓颉, cāngjié), the historian of the Yellow Emperor Xuan Yuan, who created the original Chinese pictographs during the rainy season. Grain Rain is one of the 24 solar terms in the Chinese lunar calendar. It is the sixth solar term in the year and the last one of spring. Each year during this period as the weather turns warmer, crop production benefits from increased rainfall, especially in southern China.
China's 24 solar terms were listed as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage in 2016. For more than 2000 years, they have profoundly influenced all areas of Chinese social life. The system includes abundant knowledge, containing traditional philosophy of the nature. It not only records changes in weather and seasonal order, but also embeds traditional wisdom from ancient common people in their daily lives. It testifies the diversity of human culture and highlights the practice of the Chinese concept of respecting nature, and world view of balancing Yin and Yang.
24 Solar Terms preserved the common value of the Chinese in the agriculture era. It has kept close connections with Chinese people in their modern daily lives, such as food therapy and wellness. For example, on the Beginning of Summer (立夏, lìxià), which passed this year on May 5th, people normally eat eggs and play interesting games such as Egg Fighting that the kids love. Will the Egg Fighting games possibly be adopted and used in your Chinese language classrooms? You might create more vivid and impressive activities when you flexibly play the role of folk activities such as Egg fighting or Egg decorating in your classroom.
24 Solar Terms help the students develop ecological awareness of how to protect the Earth's environment and nature. The opening ceremony of Beijing Winter Olympics 24 Solar Terms short film unveiled the beauty of nature. Save a time slot to enjoy it together with your students. Try to find out the key words of characteristics on 21st June, Summer Solstice (夏至, xiàzhì), which should be Winter Solstice (冬至, dōngzhì) in New Zealand since we are in the Southern Hemisphere. A saying goes that it is a ritual to eat dumplings on the Winter Solstice while noodles on the Summer Solstice. This could be developed to an exciting comparison topic combining language and culture together.
You may find more resources about UN language Days in this link. Through which you could understand why Arabic Day was set on 18th of December, English and Spanish Days both on the 23rd of April while French Day is the 20th of March, and, lastly, Russian Day on 6th June. This is one of the unique ways to celebrate multilingualism.
The famous scholar, Dr. Han Kesheng published several books related to 24 Solar Terms and poems. The interview in this link explains how the wisdom of 24 Solar Terms is still beneficial to the world today. His series articles of 24 Solar Terms published on the website xinmin.cn will enhance our understanding of the live traditional culture more deeply.
- Lan Dai, National Language Adviser, Tui Tuia Learning Circle
Duānwǔ jié kuàilè“: Happy Dragon Boat Festival
Da jia hao!! As you all know China is an agricultural society. Therefore, we celebrate many occasions according to Lunar calendar or Chinese Calendar (农历 Nónglì- means Farmer’s calendar - literally!)
Today, I would like to share one of the special festivals with you- 端午节Duānwǔ jié - Dragon Boat Festival. Many Chinese believe that the Dragon Boat Festival originated in ancient China in 278 BCE. The hero in this story is named Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan was a Chinese poet and politician in the State of Chu during the Warring States period. His loyalty to King of Chu was not reciprocated and he was exiled by the King. During his exile, Qu Yuan composed many poems to express his anger and sorrow towards the King’s sovereignty and people. The King of Chu had chosen to ignore him which eventually led to the subjugation of the state of Chu. Overly saddened by the news, Qu Yuan decided to drown himself in the Miluo River at the age of 61.
The people of Chu tried to save him believing that Qu Yuan was an honourable man. They searched desperately in their boats looking for Qu Yuan but were unable to save him. Every year the Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated to commemorate this attempt at rescuing Qu Yuan. For more details about the story, watch the following video:
Duānwǔ jié Dragon Boat Festival lies on 5th May of the Lunar calendar and is on 3rd June this year. Besides watching the Dragonboat competition on TV, there were two special things we did in my family. My grandmother would make us her world-famous sticky rice dumpling Zong zi. I still regret to this day that I did not learn how to make my favourite Zong zi from her. I found the below video clip that has a similar Zongzi to my grandmother’s recipe. Give it a try if you are interested in making Zong zi!
Our 2nd tradition was Egg Standing. My sisters and I would grab a raw egg, and rush outside between 12 pm to 1pm and try to make the egg stand. The first one to make the egg stand would win. According to dad only at this very time on this very day will the egg stand. This activity was one of my favourite things to do through my childhood.
Give it a try this year! Watch the video below to find out how:
I wish everyone “Duānwǔ jié kuàilè“（Happy Dragon Boat Festival）
-Fiona Yen, Facilitator
A Successful International Cloud Conference
Photo (Above): Teachers at the Chinese Teachers’ Conference in Auckland
Teaching is one of the oldest professions in human history, but teachers are one of the most innovative groups there is. No matter what the world throws at us, we catch it, spin it, and make it work for us.
This year, the 4th Oceania Chinese Teachers’ Conference is one of those successes. With support from TTui Tuia | Learning Circle, Confucius Institute Auckland, the University of Auckland, and the New Zealand Chinese Teachers’ Association, the conference managed to host speakers, presenters and participants from the UK, Australia and all over New Zealand over the two day duration. We met on the cloud, we shared teaching and learning experiences, we discussed the latest research findings and most importantly, we shared our love for the Chinese language and culture learning globally.
Because the world is an ever changing sphere, this puts teachers at the very front of adjusting to change for our learners and ourselves. How to turn unexpected obstacles into an advantageous opportunity reflects what teachers do best: learning how to learn. We are showing our learners that it is alright to not to know everything, but we must have the courage and inquisitive attitude to discover new ways of understanding the world around us. This ability to connect and learn from our colleagues, was what created the success of this international cloud conference.
- Article by Christina Howard-Shi, Teacher at Hillcrest High School
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