In the past years, China appeared more and more in the public spotlight and not only on the economic or technological plane. The rich Chinese culture also holds a special attraction that is growing in strength continuously. Especially the traditional Chinese art forms greatly interest and intrigue the western public.
Folk Music Orchestra Beijing Jiaotong University. (Foto: Filip Van Loock)
The Confucius Institute at GROUP T wants to anticipate on this. It is precisely the mission of the institute to make aware the public at large and the GROUP T students specifically of Chinese language and culture and to bring Flanders and China closer together. The Confucius Institute at GROUP T – the only one in Flanders – is the reward of the many years of cooperation of GROUP T with prominent Chinese universities. Meanwhile, this has resulted in a thriving exchange of students. Practically 20 % of the GROUP T engineering students is from China and every year, the Flemish third-bachelor students massively participate in the China Journey, a two-week study trip in China during which the students stay at the campuses of the partner universities in Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Suzhou. Thanks to the scholarships of the Confucius Institute at GROUP T, students are also able to go on a longer-term apprenticeship in China every year.
One of the first partner universities of GROUP T in China is Beijing Jiaotong University. This university is the home of the UNESCO Chair on Cooperation between Higher Engineering Education and Industries with the purpose of stimulating the collaboration between universities and companies. Prof Johan De Graeve, President and Chief Executive of GROUP T and Chairman of the Confucius Institute at GROUP T holds the co-chairmanship of the UNESCO chair.
Beijing Jiaotong University also has an excellent traditional Folk Music Orchestra in its ranks that was touring in Europe the end of November and the beginning of December. On 1 December it was hosted by GROUP T for 2 concerts. In a sparkling performance, artists performed highlights of not only Chinese folk music but also song, dance, martial arts and traditional Chinese painting. In short, a show covering all the bases, a delight for the senses and an excellent opportunity for all who wanted to learn a bit more about China and Chinese culture.
But the orchestra had more in store. The audience was pleasantly surprised when the musicians brought to bear a number of popular Flemish folk melodies on their traditional instruments. At first, they sounded a bit odd to western ears, but everybody recognised them immediately. They ended with the well-known 'Ik hou van u' by the Flemish band Noordkaap. In Chinese, this translated into 'wo hen ai ni'.
Yves Persoons
