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Nigerian teachers, students savor Chinese culture on Dragon Boat Festival

Xinhua, June 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Nigerians teachers and students in the southwest Lagos city were offered a "glutinous" taste of the Chinese culture as they cerebrated the Dragon Boat Festival here at the Confucius Institute at the University of Lagos on Friday.

Up to 300 teachers and students from local primary and secondary schools and universities took part in the celebrations of the Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu Festival, which falls on June 20, Saturday, this year.

"The Chinese people have a tradition to race dragon boat in Duanwu, so we would like to take this occasion to introduce the Chinese culture to the local friends," said Jiang Lirong, a co- director at the institute.

The origins of the Dragon Boat Festival was on display on a projector machine in one of the classrooms to the visitors, as other attendees were entertained by a combination of traditional activities, including Dragon-Boat Corner, Chinese Experience Class, Chinese Message Wall and Time Travel Snapshot.

Guests were treated with Zongzi, a kind of sweet, glutinous rice dumplings.

Zongzi, a traditional Chinese food eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival, is made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo, reed, or other large flat leaves.

Gift items were also presented to participating teachers and students after answering quiz questions.

R. D. Cilliers, who is the principal of Grace School located at Gbagada area of Lagos, Nigeria's economic hub, said the Chinese language was introduced so that their students could learn more languages to facilitate communication and to have an added advantage.

He stressed the need for students to acquire additional skills, in addition to their educational qualifications, saying that language skill was important.

"I think it's important to learn it because China is a cultural and economic giant in today's world," he added.

Tunwase Ayomide, a student of Grace School who is schedule to visit China in June, said she has been studying Chinese because she wants to distinguish herself from other students.

"It has been interesting for me to learn from another language, I wanted a better understanding of Chinese culture because it has such a rich history," she told Xinhua.

The Duanwu Festival takes place on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar.

Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet and politician in the Warring States Period (475 BC-221 BC) in Chinese history, drowned himself before his state fell to the invading enemy. Legend says that people went to retrieve his body from the river by sailing boats decorated as dragons in order to scare the fish away.

The Lagos Confucius Institute was co-founded by Beijing Institute of Technology and Lagos University in May 2009 to provide Chinese language and culture education for Nigerians. Endi