On 19th February, 2013, the Chinese New Year Celebration was co-hosted by the Confucius Institute for Business London (CIBL) and HSBC China Affairs Department. The celebration was full of snake year elements and more than 500 attendees experienced Chinese calligraphy, painting, music and other activities.
The celebration was divided into two parts, on the ground floor, the Chinese lion dancing and dragon dancing as well as the face changing show in Sichuan Opera attracted many people’s attention. The other part was a Chinese culture show on the 41st floor provided by CIBL. Professor Luo Lisheng, CIBL’s China Director, delivered a splendid talk on Chinese business culture. He highlighted and compared the different nuances of business culture between the East and the West through examples of colours, numbers, giving gifts and banquets. There was a high level of engagement with this topic, and many attendees found the subject interesting and useful. Different Chinese culture stands were also well attended by CIBL staffs. Attendees were discussing about their year of the animal before the 12 zodiacs stand. Miss Di Yun, a volunteer from Tsinghua University performed Pipa, a traditional Chinese instrument for the audiences. Many people were attracted by interactive software provided by Hanban to experience the Chinese culture. However, the most popular stand was the one attended by CIbL’s teacher Mr Dong Zhicheng and Mr Jiao Bo, who showed Chinese painting and calligraphy. The audiences were amazed by the beautiful Chinese characters and they all wanted a piece of work with their own Chinese name.
As well as the fabulous celebration activities, CIBL also arranged stalls to promote the Chinese programmes, courses, and on-line programmes of Confucius Institute for Business. CIBL just had its five year anniversary, and the cooperation between HSBC and CIBL is never to end. HSBC is not only one of the five sponsors of this Confucius Institute, but also a keen learner. The first business Chinese language learner is the former HSBC group director, Sir Stephen Green. Mr Charles Haswell, the head of Group Regulatory Policy and Development, and Mr Ralph Barber, Group Company Secretary of HSBC are also learning business Chinese at CIBL. There is also an in-company business Chinese training class in this building every week.
This is the first time for CIBL to hold a Chinese new year celebration in HSBC headquarters, and HSBC sees the year 2013 as the Year of RMB. As Professor Luo said, “Though learning Chinese well is obviously helpful for doing business in or with China. This makes learning Chinese become more and more popular.”. (By CIBL LIU Yu)