Flag raising
At 8:15 a.m. on March 1, the flag raising ceremony of Wuxi United International School was held in the school gymnasium.
Chinese culture
Good morning teachers and students:
- Today is a ‘big’ day, because it is our first reunion in the year of the Ox. Accompanied by the yet existing ambiance of the new year, I want to talk about ‘Chinese Culture’ with you all. Right now if I ask you, ‘What is Chinese culture?’ I believe that everyone of you would have your own answers. This answer might be in the past tense since you just finished Jiaozi with your family; you just solved your first lantern riddles. This answer might be in the future tense, the moment that you became a student abroad, ‘Chinese Culture’ becomes the unerasable memory of Baozi made by your grandparents. This answer might be mundane, those enchanted and unfathomable words written on your dairy is the ‘Chinese Culture’. The answer might be global, when you keep exploring and digging into the unknowns, you would find out that Chinese Culture is reshaping the politics, economics, society in an unprecedented fashion. This answer might be enjoyable, in the every picturesque morning, the mellifluous voice of students reading poems is ‘Chinese Culture’. The answer, with no doubt, might be painstaking as well, because the Chinese Culture went through the long process of history, experienced the vicissitude of society. Even at the most vulnerable moment, it had never lost its vitality, carried the rich history and mentality forward endlessly.Well the truth is, the Chinese Culture is not at somewhere far away, she is actually embedded in our daily lives, saturated into our blood. You can see her dancing under the moon, hiding inside the sound of the drum and floating between supreme dragons. You can smell the gracious Jasmine. You can hear the sweet, lingering music was being played on the lute. You can touch the soft waves and the wispy of air on the tip of her dress. This is the Chinese culture accompanies us every morning and night. She grew up with us, and we are meant to help her to be more astonishing under the internationalized world.
- But is that all? Certainly not, these are only the obvious side of the Culture, there are some imperceptible parts encoded in our DNA. They are our mindset, they are the laws of helping us to strive and maintain the vitality after five thousand years of up and downs. Last year, an appalling virus called COVID-19 ambushed the planet of earth. The virus intervened almost everyone’s life, however, China handled this bombshell immediately with great efficiency, helped the chaos society back to order. The enigma of fighting the epidemic will secretly programmed into our genes and pass down by generations. This line of code will gradually become the courage to take responsibilities, the ability to lead people to righteousness. This code will then deposits into everyone’s personality– benevolent, industrious, valorous and philanthropic. These common cultural characteristics offered us the clairvoyant insight, the profound introspection and the insurmountable self-healing capacity.
- The culture of a nation has its outstanding aspects, but of course, has its respects which still need to be improved as well. And of course, the culture can be criticized, can be altered. But if someone negates the overall aspects, it is the problem of the knowledge possessed and the wisdom. The love towards one’s own culture is the moral power. Right now I want to ask you another question. If I ask you what’s the difference between the teapot of yours and the teapot I bought from a store with 50RMB, they all serve the same purpose, which is containing the tea, so why do you cherish yours so much? But if I say, your teapot is past down by your ancestors, the one which can be purchased from the store might be prettier than this. However, this time, you would naturally believe that the one has been past down is more precious, this is called ‘Gratitude’. Wang Yang Ming once told us ‘We would be like vagrant if we do not cherish what we have in the moment but looking into something yet we do not possess.’ The culture like this pass down by generation, contains the immortal fire in the core, how could we not to love and make her into something bigger, grander?
- The book ‘Zhong Yong’ claims ‘All existences should relish their individual growth sans fear of mutual harm; All schools of thought could thrive sans conflicts.’ This is the characteristics of Chinese Culture, we embrace and accept any excellence of any nations’ culture. Students, you all are the bricks of the international bridge, the prosperity of the our own culture depends on us. Chinese people also have the enough rationality and strength to make our culture to embrace an illuminating future.
Translated by G10 Peter Pan
Then, the Primary students show a brilliant performance about Chinese culture
