Australian high school students soak up Chinese Traditional Culture

On the morning of July 28th, China Cultural Centre in Sydney brought together over 60 students from Ravenswood School for Girls and Concord High School, to enjoy a rare opportunity to get a taste of some of the world’s oldest Intangible Cultural Heritage items firsthand.

Upon arrival, students were led by staff members of the Centre for a twenty-minute guided viewing of the current exhibitions, along with the curatorial members from the National Library of China. Next, they were instructed to split into teams, each paired with different instructors to move on to the workstation venues.

Adjacent to the beautiful bronze vessels of the “Memories in Oracle Bone Scripts” Chinese traditional stone rubbing work station was held. Under professional supervision of accompanying staff members, students examined each piece of tools placed on the workstation intently and many showed curiosity at trying out the unique process of converting prints on the stone on to paper.

Chinese calligraphy session took place in the classroom were equally popular, attracted groups of students waiting in lines. Students showed great enthusiasm at practicing writing their names in Chinese characters, many of whom have had studied Chinese for couple of years.

In the library students got a taste of creative paper folding of the 12 Chinese Zodiac animal signs. They were briefed the background stories of each animal signs and then started folding of models with the instructor’s one-on-one instruction. Ended with abundant freshly made cultural items, all participants received a gift from the instructor as a reward for the finished product.

“I think our students were touched by the meticulous process of making these incredible pieces, especially when they learned that these techniques were passed down from generations to generations dating back thousands of years ago, its mind-blowing.” said one of the teacher from Ravenswood School for Girls.

This highlighting event of the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Weeks is designed to encourage local students to learn about and experience various aspects of traditional activities, thus boost their interest in the variety of human cultures in general.