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Photos of ancient Chinese sports shown in Brazil

Xinhua, April 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

The photos of Chinese Cuju, martial arts, and chess aroused a Chinese culture fever in Brazil's first Portuguese-Chinese bilingual high school here on Monday as the organizer hopes to promote cultural exchange between China and Brazil before next year's Olympic Games.

The ancient Chinese sports photo gallery, which is held by the Confucius Institute at the Rio de Janeiro's Pontifical Catholic University, provides Brazilian students numerous photos about the Asian country's ancient sports, showing the ancient Chinese sports developed along with the history of human progress.

Qiao Jianzhen, dean of the Pontifical Catholic University Confucius Institute and a promoter of the bilingual high school, said to learn Chinese culture foreigners should not only study Chinese language, but also understand China's entire culture.

"The Confucius Institute in Rio will hold such kind of Chinese cultural show every two or three months. As the Rio Olympics coming next year, I believe today's topic will attract more Brazilian students. It will play a catalytic role in the cultural exchange between the two coutries," said Qiao.

Organized by Rio de Janeiro's education department and China's Hebei Normal University, the Portuguese-Chinese bilingual high school in Niteroi, a city across Guanabara Bay from Rio, welcomed its first class with an enrollment of 72 students on Feb 9.

Named after Brazil's famous mathematician Joaquim Gomes de Sousa, the school focuses on the teaching of mathematics and combines Portuguese, Chinese and English as its teaching languages.

Joselim, one of the school's students said the photo gallery gave them a better understanding towards Chinese sports.

"Because of our school's Chinese characteristics, our physical education particularly adds some traditional Chinese sports, such as chess, dragon dance and tai chi, which are very popular among us," she added.

"The photos let us understand the origin and evolution of the modern sports and sports in China." Endi