UCD Confucius Institute Hosts the 2021 Spring Festival Gala Ireland Online

To celebrate the Lunar New Year, UCD Confucius Institute streamed the "2021 Spring Festival Gala Ireland" at 7 pm on February 14th to bring blessings and festivity to audiences all over the world through the use of cloud recording and online live broadcasting.

The event was hosted by Risteard O Deorian and Li Xiaodong. They began by expressing their gratitude towards the Ceann Comhairle His Excellency Seán Ó Fearghaíl, Lord Mayor of Dublin Ms. Hazel Chu, Irish Ambassador to China Dr Ann Derwin, Chinese Ambassador to Ireland His Excellency He Xiangdong, and President of the University of Dublin Professor Andrew J. Deeks for their enthusiastic and sincere New Year recorded greetings.

The programme of the Gala demonstrated the creativity and enthusiasm of the teachers and students of the Confucius Institute. They worked over a month in calling for and editing videos from Irish Chinese learning enthusiasts, and finally selected 26 works to be the presented to the audience out of a total of 78 which had been submitted. These brilliant performances displayed a variety of styles and creativity which effectively conveyed the expectations and blessings of the Confucius Institute teachers and students for the incoming Year of the Ox. The event kicked off with a New Year song and dance collection from the children learning Chinese in the Confucius Children's school. Elena Ryzona, a UCD Business School student, performed a unique watercolour painting "Chinese and Shamrocks" to interpret her five-year experience of learning Chinese language and culture, while a Chinese child, Liao Haochen, introduced his beloved hometown Beijing in perfect Mandarin.

A famous line of Chinese poetry "Understanding knows no distance, friends far away are only neighbours." is well illustrated by the performances of Irish friends of China. Anne Marie Farrell poignantly performed the Chinese pop song "Quiet" and touched the hearts of the audience. Other Irish friends expressed their New Year blessings and shared their joy by showing their Chinese cooking, writing Spring Festival couplets, calligraphy, etc. Eoin Kenny performed the song "When You Are Old" by the Irish poet Yeats in Chinese, which surprised and delighted the audience. Matthew and Axel James, students from the Chinese Language and Culture degree program at the University of Dublin, respectively expressed their beautiful feelings of tight bond with Chinese culture. Chinese student Gao Dan showed everyone the Emerald Island through her video and expressed her homesickness and thoughts of her family and friends. The Peking Opera "Ode to the Pear Blossom", the Erhu "Good Night", and the violin concerto "The Butterfly Lovers" also illustrated the talents of the performers and pushed the festivity of the event to a higher level. The finale piano solo "I Love You China" used beautiful notes to soothe the homesickness of overseas Chinese in Ireland, and the melodious melody expressed the best wishes of overseas Chinese to the motherland, which brought a perfect end to the festivities.

The Spring Festival Gala Ireland made use of the features of live broadcasting on YouTube and Bilibili and established a platform for communication and interaction with the audience in real-time. More than a thousand people have viewed the gala, and the number is still growing every day. The successful holding of the gala show not only made the Chinese compatriots in a foreign country feel the warmth of the Spring Festival, but also allowed many local audiences to appreciate the charm of Chinese culture.