On September 19th, the 2023 Confucius Culture Week organized by Chinese Center for International People-to-People Exchange of the Ministry of Education was launched in Jining, Shandong Province. Recommended by the Shanxi Provincial Education Department, five outstanding students from our International Education Institute participated in this bigevent. From 24 universities and 36 different countries, these 182 Chinese and foreign young students visited Confucius’hometown andgot deeply understanding of Confucian culture.

The theme of this cultural week is “ Youth,Exchangeand Future ”.It aims to cultivate and enhance the interest and understanding of Chinese excellent traditional culture through rich activities such aslistening to Confucianism lectures, visiting cultural attractions, and learning traditional skills.What is more, in the process of learning cooperation, they enhance the awareness of cultural exchange and promote their mutual understanding of civilization.

During the activity,our international students showed a good mental outlook with serious attitude and excellent performance, which was highly evaluated by the organizers and other university participants.At the launch ceremony, the foreign student MUHAMMAD AOUN ALI introduced Shanxi Medical University in Chinese skillfully. HUSSNAIN SYED MUHAMMAD was selected as the representative of foreign students in the flag-conferring link of the ceremony. In the group construction activities with Chinese traditional cultural characteristics, the students experienced concentric drumming, archery, Chuiwan, Touhu, Dragon Boat and other games, and our team unity won the third place finally. At the Cultural Celebration Party, our students dressed intraditional costumes and performed the Shanxi folk song“The Good Scenery of Shanxi”, expressing the unique charm and style of Shanxi and winning the applause of the audience.

They also attended the traditional culture lecture of“Chinese Traditional Culture Chat”. Listened to the experts to explain the historical origin, core values of Chinese traditional culture and its development in modern society, and understood the connotation and significance of Chinese traditional culture.Besides, they visited the traditional cultural attractions such as Confucius mansion, Confucius temple and Nishan Sacred Land, observed historical relics, explored Confucian culture, and felt the profound connotation of Confucian culture. Moreover, they experienced the production of traditional Chinese food, tasted the traditional food of Shandong, felt the differences in food culture between different regions, and enhanced the understanding of Chinese cultural diversity.

IZAZ SHAH, a foreign student, said that the event led us to cross the millennium, reunite with the sages, deepen our understanding of Chinese traditional culture, and experience the mutual learning and exchange of different cultural civilizations.