On 14/10/2018, a memorable grand event on “2018 International Cultural Festival of UCAS” was diligently held at Yanqihu campus among thousands of participants from more than 50 countries. The event was organized on the occasion of UCAS 40th anniversary with a theme of “UCAS 40 Years: Advancing with science & progressing with openness”.
The formal program of the event commenced with welcome speech from Prof. Wu Yueliang, vice-president of UCAS, which is then followed by group photo and performances by the students under UCAS from different countries. Around fifteen countries showed their performance representing their nations. Performance started with Kenya and then followed by Denmark, Pakistan, China, Thailand, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, India, Nigeria, Myanmar and Nepal.
Group photo during the event
Moreover, the festival was truly a mesmerizing show full of cultural exhibition by different countries from different parts of the world. Thousands of visitors participating in the event enjoyed with food, music, custom, tradition and many more displayed items in booth of each countries. In addition, lucky draws in between the performances surplus beauty of event. The other more exciting part is VISA granting game by each country. In this part, each visitors get one passport and they have to visit each booth to get VISA on their passport, the one who get more than 20 is eligible for the exciting award.
Performances from different countries during the event
The smile and cheerfulness on the faces of visitors reflect that everyone has really enjoyed the festival and they are expecting to celebrate every year for years to come. Students claimed that such type of activity doesn’t only help for cultural exchange but also to extend the network, develop mutual understanding and cooperation among different countries.
Various activities seen during the festival time
Here are some feedbacks summarized based on the conversations with many participants during the event.
(A) Chinese student
It is my great pleasure to be with so many international students and their cultural booths. It is not possible to see cultural diversity in single place if there was no such event. Thanks to UCAS for organizing this mega event.
- Liwen Zeng, Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS
(B) International student
I am really excited to setup and represent my booth in this international cultural festival. I can let other know about my country and also get chance to know about other countries as well.
- Dorjkhand Sharavjamts (Mongolia), Institute of Psychology, CAS
(C) Recently enrolled student (2018)
I enrolled just this year, but very soon I get chance to know about the culture of many countries. I am so happy to taste food from different countries. May be it could take my whole life to visit each country and taste their food, but this event did this in few hours. Thanks to organizers.
- Teklit Zerizghi Tekleab (Eritrea, Africa), Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resource Research, CAS.
(D) Performers
Our culture is what defines us. We just showed performance from our country and excitement from audience really make us feel proud. Performances from each country representing their nation help us to know about the diversified culture, dress and many more.
- Arfa Abrar Malik and her team from Pakistan, CAS
(D) Student out of UCAS who visit the event
I didn’t belong to UCAS, but I am so glad to be here. Many entertaining performances and cultural display by each country is the major attraction I found here. In short, today is the well spent day of mine.
- Chamod Lakshan Jayamanna (Sri Lanka), Beijing foreign studies university
(E) Booth leader
As a booth leader, I was excited and nervous at the same time. I am happy that I could make the visitors visiting in my booth go with smiling face. All people visiting our booth are so happy and excited to taste out local food and traditional items displayed. I found it well organized and systematic.
- Sanjev Dhakal (Nepal), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, CAS
(F) Staff
Actually, the program went very well as we expected. The self-motivation from students help us to organize the program in systematic way. I think today’s weather is also in favor of us. Thanks to all staffs, student leaders and all students for making this dream come true. We have successfully completed the celebration of first international cultural festival on the occasion of 40th UCAS anniversary. Again, thank you all.
- HUANG Dingcheng, Director, International Students Office
Written by Hemraj BHATTARAI
Photo by HU Menglin, LIU Chaoyang, Hemraj BHATTARAI
