今年9月23日，为庆祝孔子学院日，芝加哥孔子学院在位于芝加哥市中心的惠特尼·扬中学举办了第四届芝加哥中国文化节。活动当天，600 多位观众观看了由江苏演艺集团为大家带来的为时一个半小时的大型综合文艺演出。同时，20多家与中国文化和教育有关的机构受邀前来展示并向来宾提供各类中国文化活动 – 中医、针灸、书法、绘画、民乐、民族服装、剪纸、风筝、武术、围棋、中文小课堂等，百花齐放、应有尽有。2,000多人积极参与并赢取各种带有中国元素的奖品。前来参加活动的芝加哥民众认为中国文化节是芝加哥最具规模、最有趣的中国文化活动。芝加哥中国领事馆洪磊总领事、教育参赞陈盈辉、惠特尼·扬中学校长乔艾丝·凯纳、芝加哥公立学区语言文化办公室主任尔厄耐斯多·马蒂亚斯以及外语部主任法碧欧拉·金斯基应邀出席了活动并在开幕式上讲话。新华社以及芝加哥的一些地方电视台和报纸分别对该活动进行了报道。
来自网络视频
来自网络视频
CHICAGO, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of students from Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and their parents gathered at Whitney Young Magnet High School in Chicago Saturday to have a taste of traditional Chinese culture at the annual Chinese Cultural Festival.
Along the hallway of Whitney Young, students and their families learned Chinese calligraphy, paper-cutting, kite-making and Wei Qi, and tried to use chopsticks at more than 20 exhibitors that presented Chinese culture-related activities.
Jiangsu Provincial Performing Arts Troupe from China presented a 90-minute performance in the auditorium of the school. Two men propped up a lion costume and presented to the audience Chinese traditional lion dance, they jumped up and down and did some acrobatics on two benches under the lion costume, drawing waves of applauses.
活动现场
Chinese artists also performed traditional Chinese folk dance, songs, and Chinese acrobatics.
This is the fourth year for the Confucius Institute in Chicago (CIC) and the CPS to host the event.
"Our Chinese Cultural Festival in the past three years was a great success, with more than 2,000 attendees from CPS and the general public," said Jane Lu, Director of CIC. "We want to share the fun and celebrate Chinese culture again this year."
Hong Lei, Chinese Consul General in Chicago, told Xinhua that Chinese Cultural Festival is a platform to promote Chinses culture as well as to review the achievements of Chinese Teaching in Chicago.
活动现场
With China and the U.S. being two largest economies in the world, it's very important for the youngsters of the two countries to know each other, to understand each other's culture so "we can appreciate each other and be friends, and forge an even stronger relationship," he added.
Being the third largest school district in the U.S., CPS runs one of the most successful Chinese language programs in the country, with approximately 11,000 students learning Chinese in 42 schools from 58 teachers.
Emily Kurylak, a 14-year-old student at Whitney Young, has been studying Chinese for four years. She told Xinhua she wanted to learn Chinese so that she can talk with her mom and grandparents in their native language. "It's getting hard sometimes, but once you get over the boundary it's easier," said Kurylak.
"As a Chinese language teacher, I'm here not only to teach them language itself, but also help younger generation to know more about Chinese culture and traditional Chinese education philosophy," said Lusha Yin, who has been teaching Chinese at Whitney Young for 12 years.
作者:芝加哥孔子学院
来源：
中文新闻：芝加哥孔子学院
英文新闻：新华网
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