IT WAS New Year's Day in China last Monday. For many in the West it will have passed unnoticed, despite the country's new status as a global superpower, writes John Holden.
Little is known about China in Ireland that goes beyond cuisine and kung fu movie stereotypes. While China is not a top destination for Irish travellers, Irish Jesuits made a home for themselves there over four hundred years ago. In the 1920s they built a school, Wah Yan Jesuit College Kowloon in Hong Kong, and it is this connection which has inspired a new student exchange project between China and Ireland.
The Jesuit Belvedere College in Dublin has a healthy transition year programme. Between sport, music, drama (and everything else) it can be a busy year for TY students. A new programme begun this year gives those in TY the opportunity to experience Chinese language and culture. Run by the UCD Confucius Institute, the 10-week course includes modules in Chinese language, food, society, tradition, arts, film and music.
Xiao Dong Li is a Chinese language lecturer in UCD, but has branched out to the post-primary sector. “I teach in Belvedere College, Loreto Bray and Newpark Comprehensive School,” she explains. “I take the students in Belvedere College for two hours a week. In that time we do some language work as well as looking at culture and customs. The language work is very basic and a lot of it is done through phonetics. It is easier to learn how to listen and speak the Chinese language than it is to learn how to read and write it. For reading you must memorise many pictures and symbols and, because it is such an old language, the grammar can get quite tricky.
“The Chinese alphabet and Asian characters are the most difficult part for any new learner, young or old. If the students in Belvedere began learning earlier in school we could introduce more of the alphabet. The girls in Loreto Bray, for example, are starting our course in first year so they might get on better with the alphabet later on.
“I focus on what’s known as pin yin or phonetic Chinese. We do basic greetings, and language to get around. We also teach students how to order food.”
THIS LAST PART of their linguistic training has already come in handy for Belvedere’s students. The school’s proximity to Dublin’s new Chinatown (around Parnell St) may have been the inspiration, but a Chinese cultural programme was deemed incomplete without a trip to an authentic restaurant.
“I took the boys to a Chinese restaurant in the city where they had a tour of the kitchen, sampled some dishes and had conversations with chefs and waiters,” says Xiao Dong. “Food is very important in our culture.”
The media is another good way to gain insight into other cultures and Xiao Dong has shown students some lesser-known Chinese films. “I want them to learn something about common people’s lives, how we live and how our lifestyle differs from Irish people,” she states. “It’s not all about kung fu, so I have chosen movies which depict simple daily life, movies which show both what China used to be like as well as what it’s like now.”
In addition to language, food and films, the students have engaged with Chinese culture through etiquette, folk art and traditional music.
For some of those involved, the introductory course will serve a very practical purpose, as 17 Irish students are preparing to travel to Hong Kong for two weeks in April. The exchange between Wah Yan College and Belvedere College is being piloted this year and has all gone to plan thus far. Despite the high cost (€1,750 for Irish students) and the scarcity of places (only 15 available to each school), the exchange has been over-subscribed on both sides, with 17 Irish students and 18 Hong Kong Chinese students now involved.
16-year-old Donal Cahill first became interested in the trip while doing the Chinese cultural course last term. “They already do a lot of exchanges here in Belvedere with schools in France, Austria and India,” he says. “But travelling to China is just so different to anything I’ve ever had the opportunity to do before.”
The school’s career guidance counsellor, Barry O’Leary, had a big part to play in putting the whole exchange together. “I travelled over to Hong Kong before we agreed to set up the student exchange,” says O’Leary. “We were welcomed with open arms by our guests but, more importantly, Wah Yan College has a strong social justice programme, like ourselves, which made the whole idea even more appealing.”
In the spirit of both schools’ ethos, Irish students will be travelling to mainland China to teach English at a primary school in a disadvantaged area as part of their own two-week trip to Hong Kong.
THE HONG KONG exchange students visited here this month and gained new insights into Irish life – but also saw a few myths dispelled.
“We had learnt a lot about the religious conflict in Northern Ireland and thought that it was still an issue all across the island,” admits Wah Yan student Vincent Choy (16). “We realise now that it is all in the past.
“One thing we have noticed though is that the buildings are very low in Ireland, not like the skyscrapers at home,” he adds.
Authorities in Belvedere College expect that this is the beginning of a long-standing relationship with Wah Yan College, and expects the the Chinese classes in TY to continue. “It has gone very well so far this year so I expect it will become a regular programme,” says O’Leary.
With the growing influence of China in the world, we may all soon start signing up to Chinese language and culture classes.
[ www.confuciusinstitute.ieOpens in new window ]
The Chinese New Year A centuries-old tradition that never loses its shine
The Chinese New Year, which fell on January 26th this year, is actually known as the Spring Festival in China and is the most important time of the year.
Unlike our new year, which is based on the Gregorian calendar, the date of the Spring Festival is, like Easter, dictated by the lunar calendar. It falls on the first day of the first lunar month, which is usually around one month later than our calendar. But it changes from year to year (last year’s Chinese New Year fell in February).
In the West, our calendar is dated from the birth of Jesus Christ. So AD 2009 means 2009 years after the birth of Christ. This illustrates a linear approach to timekeeping, with time moving in a straight line from the past to the present to the future.
In traditional China, however, the passing of time was seen as a cyclical occurrence: something that was always repeating itself according to a pattern. If you have ever seen a traditional calendar you will notice that 12 animals are shown to represent the 12 years of a cycle – Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Boar.
This year is the Chinese year of the Ox (If you want to calculate which animal represents the year you were born, simply count back your age from the ox on any traditional Chinese calendar).
The Spring Festival is a lot like Christmas, a time when families get together and Chinese people living abroad return home. People normally take up to a week off work and school, and they give each other presents and have big meals in celebration of the New Year.
In some parts of the country people dress up on New Year’s Day. Others eat the traditional dish – dumplings – and still others give children money wrapped in red paper. Some of the new year customs can be traced back to the Shang Dynasty (1600-1100 BC).
