Submitted by cob on
On Feb 8, Ambassador of China to The Bahamas Mr. Huang Qinguo and his wife Madame Zheng Chuncao held a reception celebrating the 2018 Chinese Spring Festival. Her Excellency Dame Marguerite Pindling, Governor-General of The Bahamas, the Honourable Kevin Peter Turnquest, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Honourable Carl Wilshire Bethel, Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs and the Honurable Darren Allen Henfield, Minister of Foreign Affairs together with over 200 diplomats, local Chinese, employees of Chinese enterprises, and other Bahamian friends attended the reception.
Prof. Fan Yong, the Chinese Co-Director of the Confucius Institute at University of the Bahamas was also invited to attend the reception together with Ms. Liu Dongmei, Ms. Sheng Di, the two Chinese language teachers of the Confucius Institute as well as 17 Mandarin students from the University and from a Chinese language classroom affiliated to the Confucius institute.
10 little mandarin students from a Chinese classroom in St. Pedro International School first went on stage to give a performance of chanting two famous ancient Chinese poems—“Awakening on a Spring Dawn” and “Mounting the Stork Tower”. Then Ms. Liu Dongmei and a student from the “Elementary Chinese I” class at University of the Bahamas sang together a famous Canadian folk song—“Red River Valley” in both English and Chinese. Finally, five students from the “Elementary Chinese II” class at the university sang a web song—“Sorry, my Chinese is not good”, which is very popular among foreign learners of Chinese. They sang this song while dancing and playing the guitar. The lively performances given by the students were warmly applauded by the guests attending the reception and also added to the joyous and harmonious atmosphere and the festivity of the reception.
After the performances, Mr. Huang Qinguo, Ambassador of China to the Bahamas and Mr. Henfield, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Bahamas talked cordially with the students and teachers of the Confucius Institute and had a group photo with them to mark the occasion.