On October 20,2023, The Confucius Institute at University of Guadalajara, Mexico, successfully held the first Chinese culture lecture in this semester, titled "Blowing Plum Blossom —— Exploring the Spiritual Pursuit of Chinese People". The keynote speakers was Ms.Ren Lijuan, the Chinese and foreign director, all teachers and 20 students attended the lecture.

This lecture focuses on the scientific name, origin, distribution, planting history, plant morphology, plant use, flowering period and other contents of plum, let these Mexican audiences, who live in the western Pacific region, with the average annual temperature in 20℃, have a basic understanding of the plum blossom. Then, the speaker focused on the plum blossom and the meaning of plum blossom in traditional Chinese culture.

During the activity, under the guidance of the keynote speaker, the students learned and sang the Plum Blossom written by Wang Anshi, the famous poet of the Northern Song Dynasty, and understood the poet's strong, persistent and noble integrity as the plum blossom. In the last part, the keynote speaker taught the method of blowing ink of the plum blossom represents. All the participants showed their skills, had a good try. After blowing the ink for a while, the ink fragrance floated for a while, and the plum blossom appeared on the paper.

The activity was warmly welcomed by students and the local residents. A guest attending the lecture said that China, an ancient oriental country, went through the hardship and fell to the bottom several times and finally returned to the glory. It was not lost in the long river of history like other ancient civilizations, since every Chinese people has a plum blossom in their heart.

The Confucius Institute will hold more cultural activities and lectures with Chinese characteristics in this semester.