Recently, San Marino Confucius Institute (CI) brought a series of Chinese culture workshops to two secondary schools in San Marino.

The workshop comprised eight sessions in total, including activities titled “Five-Color Tea and Five-Animal Exercise", "Making Dumplings for Chinese New Year", and "Lanterns Illuminating Reunion", engaging nearly 200 teachers and students.

The workshop emphasized the integration of language learning with cultural immersion. During sessions on "Five Colors, Five Seasons, Temperatures, and Five Animals", students explored Chinese radicals such as the "grass radical (艹) " and "water radical (氵) ", gaining an initial understanding of the connection between Chinese character structure and natural elements. While tasting green tea, black tea, and oolong tea, participants learned basic tea etiquette and delved into the natural philosophy and spirit of propriety embedded in Chinese tea culture. As they learned the names of the animals in the Five-Animal Exercise (Wu Qin Xi), everyone practiced the movements of the tiger, deer, bear, monkey, and bird, experiencing the concepts of traditional Chinese wellness through rhythmic motion.

In the "Making Dumplings for Chinese New Year" session, teachers and students alike learned vocabulary related to dumplings and expressions of blessing while jointly wrapping dumplings in five different shapes, immersing themselves in the festive atmosphere of a Chinese family.

As students learned about the symbolic meaning of Chinese New Year lanterns and the cultural significance of paper-cutting in traditional festivals, they cut patterned designs and completed lantern projects, gaining a practical understanding of the cultural symbols of "prosperity (红火) " "reunion (团圆) " and "celebration (喜庆)" in the Chinese New Year.

This series of Chinese culture workshops is a key component of the Memorandum of Understanding between the CI and local secondary schools, serving as a valuable platform for CI to engage with local youth. Teachers and students arrived with anticipation and departed with dumplings, paper-cuts, and lanterns in hand, gradually deepening their understanding of and emotional connection to Chinese culture.