WELLINGTON - Han Xuanting spins in a skirt
typical of the style of China's Uygur ethnic group, with a dozen New Zealand
girls in school dresses imitating her steps around her.
The midday dance class is given in
Samuel Marsden Collegiate School on the outskirts of Wellington, capital of New
Zealand.
For Han, a Chinese dance teacher,
this has been her routine.
"Children learn very quickly, and
they can easily master the skill of moving their necks while dancing," says Han,
referring to a key feature of the Uygur dance from western China's Xinjiang
Uygur autonomous region.
For Zhang Jianyong, it is busy time
every Wednesday evening.
As a tai chi teacher in Wellington,
Zhang teaches his students the moves of this traditional Chinese exercise once a
week.
"Many Kiwis chose to take tai chi as
their daily sport after learning that it benefits their health," Zhang says,
adding that this exercise has become a good way of spreading Chinese
culture.
Both Han's and Zhang's classes are
part of the programs run by the New Zealand Chinese Cultural Center, which has
been working to introduce Chinese cultural elements to the local
public.
Recently, the center signed a
memorandum with Wellington's Whitireia New Zealand to open an optional course of
Chinese dance in the government-funded tertiary institute of
technology.
The college is also Han's alma mater,
where she once performed a traditional Chinese dance for teachers and students
before her graduation.
Enthusiasm for Chinese dance has been
rising in New Zealand, and Chinese dance is going to be taught along with
Western modern dance in this college for the first time.
Guo Zongguang, who is the director of
the Chinese cultural center, says that since the center was established more
than a year ago, various cooperation forms have been explored, including jointly
hosting cultural events and supporting local cultural organizations and Chinese
cultural groups.
These events have enriched the
cultural lives of New Zealanders and contributed to the local multicultural
atmosphere, Guo says.
At the opening ceremony of the
Chinese Cultural Week 2016, more than 100 local performers, including
Wellington's then mayor, staged a grand show of tai chi in the municipal square
in the capital.
During the multicultural festival in
the New Zealand's national museum, a performance staged by the Chinese Cultural
Center was joined by shows of more than 10 ethnic groups in New Zealand,
reflecting the multicultural nature of the country.
At the 2017 Wellington Capital Cup, a
friendly soccer match between teams from Wellington and Beijing, cultural
performances staged by the Chinese Cultural Center were brought to the soccer
field.
According to Guo, intangible cultural
heritage was also brought from China as part of the celebration of China's
Spring Festival in New Zealand, which was also applauded by New Zealand Prime
Minister Bill English.
"Such interactions and exchanges have
become a window for promoting Chinese culture," Guo says.
Last year marked the 400th
anniversary of the birth of both William Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu, a Chinese
playwright of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) known as the Chinese
Shakespeare.
In a global event to commemorate the
theater masters, Megan Evans, a lecturer from the Victoria University of
Wellington, said that Shakespeare's well-known line in Hamlet - "to be, or not
to be" - was reflected in Tang's Peony Pavilion, a play featuring the pursuit of
love.
"Such exchanges of viewpoints are of
great significance to cross-cultural communication," Guo says.
Various Chinese cultural events have
been introduced to New Zealand to promote Chinese culture and strengthen the
bilateral friendship, Guo adds.
Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand
Wang Lutong says both the governments and the public have been very active in
cultural exchanges.
Zhang Jianyong has been keen to go
beyond his tai chi classes. He says that he would promote traditional Chinese
medicine and Chinese tea art in New Zealand, so as to enable the people of the
Oceanian country to know more about the Chinese culture.