Roundup: Confucius Institute Day marked in Ghana

The Confucius Institute Day was observed here Friday with a colorful ceremony at the Risingsun Montessori, a privately-owned school in Ghana's capital.

The Day, which was organized by the Confucius Institute at the University of Ghana, Legon, was marked to commemorate the achievements of the Institute during its 11 years of existence globally.

Confucius Institute is an education and cultural exchange organization set up by Hanban of China in all parts of the world to spread Chinese language teaching and culture.

The lively ceremony saw performances of Chinese Tea culture, Taichi, varying musical performances and dances by students of the Institute at the University of Ghana.

Children of the Risingsun Montessori also performed Chinese songs and recitals much to the admiration of the audience.

Participants had the opportunity to experience firsthand Chinese culture and language by taking part in Chinese language lessons, Chinese martial art lessons, experiencing Chinese calligraphy and painting of facial masks of Peking opera.

The Director of the Confucius Institute, Dr Mei Meilian, said the institute had been offering Chinese language proficiency and culture courses for more than 1,800 students from the public and its four teaching sites.

She said the institute was happy to have programs in schools and communities off the University of Ghana where it is located to help more Ghanaians to know about Chinese language and culture.

"We are happy to have our program at Risingsun Montessori School today and we will be happy to have it at other schools such as Kwabenya schools tomorrow. We are happy to go anywhere Ghanaian people need us to," she said.

The Director of the Risingsun Montessori School, Patrick Acheampong, said the school's collaboration with the Confucius Institute was one such of numerous programs which he believed would make the students multi-cultural.

"We believe that 20 years from now, every child from Ghana should be able to walk on the streets of Beijing and walk freely and communicate as if they were born and bred there. It shall come to pass."

The Political Counselor of the Chinese Embassy, Wang Sheng, said China was definitely not the first Asian country to come to Ghana but hoped that it should become the Asian country to understand Ghana the best.

"In this regard, the Confucius institute still has a long way to go to promote the mutual understanding between our two countries and two peoples."

Starting from scratch, the Confucius Institute has developed from a small to a large number with its education scale expanding and the quality of teaching improving by the day. Endit