Listen to the International Voices across Five Continents, Get Close to Multiple Cultures

ECUST holds the 2018 International Cultural Festival

On the morning of November 23, the 3rd International Cultural Festival in ECUST hosted by CIE was officially opened on Xuhui Campus. Liu Changsheng, vice president of ECUST and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. He noted that ECUST has given top priority to education internationalization in its double first-class initiative development, and international education in ECUST has also achieved unprecedented results over the past few years: signing cooperation agreements with world-renowned universities such as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Royal Swedish Institute of Technology, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Groningen in Netherlands, and establishing the Nobel Scientist Laboratory – “Joint Laboratory for Structural Controllable Molecular Engineering International Cooperation”. Meanwhile, ECUST’s international reputation has been increasing year by year. In 2018, of great significance is the fact that our school obtained the international education quality certification in higher education institutions issued by the Ministry of Education, which will definitely enhance the quality and efficiency of our international education, promote the comprehensive and sustainable development of international student education, create an international image of “Study in ECUST”, and support double first-class initiative development with high-quality international education.

Hu Bing, deputy director of Department of Student Affairs, and Bao Hua, vice dean of CIE also attended the opening ceremony, hosted by international students Tamimu from Yemen and Mao Lili from Italy. More than 200 Chinese and foreign students from 37 countries and regions participated in the International Cultural Festival, and nearly 1,000 faculty and students in total attended the event. Obviously, the Festival allowed students the access to experiencing multiple and splendid cultures across the world. 

 
ECUST vice president Liu Changsheng delivers the speech at the opening ceremony

The international student from Guinea, Huang Bingyan, spoke as a representative of the international cohort and expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the school for hosting such an international event where students had the opportunity to share their distinctive cultures, deepen mutual understanding and enhance friendship. In addition, Huang Bingyan retrospectively recalled his learning experiences in ECUST and commented on China's striking geographical environment, profound history and rapid economic development. He also encouraged other international students to make more Chinese friends and gain a deeper understanding of Chinese culture.

Huang Bingyan delivers the speech as a representative of international students

Foreign and Chinese students prepared a repertoire of entertainment programs for the enthusiasm and applause-filled opening ceremony with Mongolian students performing the dance “Phoenix”, Pakistani students “Pakistan Cultural Mashup”, Lao students singing “Date with me”, Hanfu Club students performing the dance “Return to Han and Tang Dynasties”.

 

 

Brilliant programs at the opening ceremony

The 3rd Festival has innovatively set up the activity of international passport collection and stamping. ECUST faculty and students drew the international passports at the entrance and stamped at the international cultural booths that interested them. The activity turned out to be extremely popular as 200 carefully crafted international passports were distributed almost in seconds. During the Festival, booths were set up for 37 countries and regions including Germany, Italy, France, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Laos, South Africa and Uganda. Students from all over the world drew on their own history, geography, food and others to promote their own folk customs with beautiful colors and delicious food including Arabian mutton rice, Italian pizza, Kazakhstan fruit salad, Lao chicken, Yemen pastry, German beer, the Egyptian miniature pyramid with national cultural characteristics, Papua New Guinea body painting, and Pakistani national costumes, etc., which attracted faculty and students to participate in high spirits. Indeed, the Festival has enabled teachers and students uniquely experiencing the integrated Chinese and foreign cultures at home.

International passport collection

 

Distinctive international cultural booths

During the event, vice president Liu Changsheng accepted an interview with a Saudi student entrusted by Saudi Basic Industries Company to receive training in ECUST. He gave a detailed introduction to our basic situation and featured subjects, and welcomed Saudi students to study at ECUST, hoping to further promote the cooperation between enterprises and our school.

Vice president Liu Changsheng accepted an interview with a Saudi student from Saudi Basic Industries Company

After the event, the participating faculty and students noted that the International Cultural Festival allowed everyone to appreciate the exotic cultural charm in laughter, and make new friends while broadening their horizons. At the same time, they extended the hope that the International Cultural Festival will move towards a brighter future. 

Lively festival scene

In recent years, ECUST has made internationalization an important strategy for the goal of “building a world-class university”, and made integrating Chinese and foreign cultures a significant goal of exploring and practicing intercultural communication. The International Cultural Festival is an annual event for international students and an important part of campus cultural activities for ECUST students. It will contribute to promoting the in-depth exchange and integration of Chinese and foreign students, and to cultivating outstanding students who are familiar with and friendly to China.