China Pavilion at the Grand Amsterdam Dance Event

发布于 03.11.2017

On 21 October 2017, Groningen Confucius Institute, as a partner, jointly launched the one-day event China Pavilion as a part of Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE), a world-leading annual five-day electronic music platform and festival, in the heart of the famous Vondelpark. We aimed to bring Chinese music and culture to the rest of the world via the grand international festival.

Vondelpark outdoor scene （photo derived from @ChinaPavilionInternational）

Besides music, China Pavilion presented a full day & night festival program, including the official ADE China Conference, China Talks (lectures and performances about Chinese society, science and culture), Chinese Calligraphy workshop, Networking Event, Silent Disco, Chinese Virtual Reality Experiences, Documentary Screening, Great Wall DJ Competition and so on, among which GCI was the main organizer of the section China Talks.

Wonderful moments （photo derived from @ChinaPavilionInternational）

Mrs. Jingyi Liu, the Chinese Director of GCI, gave a presentation on The Poetic expression and philosophical implication of Mountain and Water starting by a piece of dulcet Guzheng music in China Talks. She interpreted the relationship between mountains and waters in Chinese culture, by quoting a story Lofty Mountains and Flowing Waters (高山流水) and line from Tao Te Ching “The highest good is like water. Water benefits all things generously without striving with them. ”(上善若水，水善利万物而不争)”.

GCI Chinese Director Jingyi Liu was giving a presentation

Mrs. Xuefei Knoester-Cao, the Dutch director of GCI participated in the a panel discussion in the ADE Conference, sharing her insights into how to strengthen the cultural ties between China, the Netherlands and the rest of the western world.

GCI Director Xuefei Knoester-Cao in the panel discussion during the ADE Conference

Artists from Music Confucius Institute were invited to give a 45-minute instrumental performance reflecting the dialogues between the Chinese and the West.

Artists from Music Confucius Institute were performing

Meanwhile, the calligraphy workshop hosted by GCI teachers was open to the public as well from 13:00 to 18:00, attracting many guests to experience how to write different scripts of Chinese characters like “舞””乐””琴” “山水” and appreciated Chinese calligraphic works. In addition, the guests also had the chance to enjoy the live Chinese traditional instrument Guzheng performance by GCI teacher Jingfan Xie in the venue.

GCI teachers, Afang Fang and Yang Wang were hosting the calligraphy workshop

GCI teacher, Jingfan Xie was playing Guzheng

Ms. Xin Guo, a Chinese teacher from GrCI, was also invited to give live interpretation for the panel discussion “the Development of Electronic Music in Chinese Market”

GCI teacher, Xin Guo was giving a live interpretation

During night time, many well-known DJs from the Netherlands and China such as the Galaxy, Giovane heated up the venue with live musical performances. Several teachers from GCI also played an important role in the check-in desk. Thousands of audiences took part in this grand event with great enthusiasm, which was also reported by the well-known Dutch media OOG Radio en Televisie.

This is the first cooperation between GCI, Yinyang Music Festival, and VondelCS in ADE. The input and support from Groningen Confucius Institute is highly appreciated by all the partners and the enormous audience. During this event, the Groningen Confucius Institute has showed the audience a broad view of China with performances of music, workshops and also bring in-depth thought about Chinese culture by giving talks and panel discussion. As all the partners hope there will be more interaction between both sides of the Dutch and the Chinese.

Foundation for Dutch Music Export Merlijn Poolman was having interview (photo derived from OOG Radio & Televisie)

(By Afang Fang, photos by Cui Hao, Wei Jiang and derived from @ChinaPavilionInternational and OOG Radio & Televisie)