Each year, 1.5 billion Chinese people celebrate their new year on the first day of the Lunar calendar. This year’s celebration on January 22^nd marks the start of the year of the rabbit. Depending on a 12-year cycle, each Chinese zodiac sign is assigned to a specific year.

Thanks to the efforts of the MCI China Center, we got the chance to experience and learn about this tradition firsthand. During the introduction, we learnt that according to a legend, the Chinese New Year originated from a conflict with the dreadful beast known as the “Nián 年”, who would appear on Lunar New Year's Eve to devour people and cattle. People burned bamboo, lit candles, exhibited red paper, dressed in red, and displayed red objects to frighten the monster away. These customs have persisted up to the present day.

After an insightful start, the new “Online Chinese Classroom at MCI” was introduced. Starting in March this year, MCI students will be able to sign up for free and study Mandarin through interactive online lectures, games and have access to an immense online library. With the introduction of this program, our students will soon be able to learn Mandarin at any time and wherever they are benefiting from the high MCI teaching standards.

The highlight of this event for me was the keynote speaker Yan Zhao. As a lecturer from Shanghai University, Prof. Zhao held an exclusive talk about Chinese Corporate Strategies. Next to providing us with background on the origins of past Chinese military strategies, parallels to modern approaches were drawn. At the end of his talk, he gave us an interesting case study from Huawei to underline his statements.

Before coming to our culinary end, Dr. Brigitte Debe from MCI held a presentation about the Art of Asian Tea. She is an expert in tea preparation and offered us several delicious tea samples.

In the end, we also got to try typical Chinese food while meeting new and exciting people from all over, sharing the same curiosity for Chinese Culture. Moreover, there was great interest in trying out traditional Chinese Calligraphy taught by an incoming exchange student Xinyang He from Shenzhen Technology University.

Having attended MCI Mandarin classes and all the other events too, I can conclude that the MCI China Center is fostering a tremendous educational atmosphere for interested students to learn more about this country and its traditions and language. I am grateful for all the hard work and effort put in by Prof. Dr. Wei Manske-Wang, Wei Wang & Yiqiao Wang to host such impressive events to promote cross-cultural experiences.

谢谢!