Anna, a Canadian teacher, shows off her paper-cut work. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Jianwen
Yinchuan, 26 Jan (Xinhua) -- Under the guidance of her teacher, Anna held scissors in one hand and red paper with a dotted line drawn with a pencil in the other, and the tip of the cut carefully passed through the hollowed out place on the paper, and her eyes were focused.
"This is the 'hi' character for Chinese characters, so beautiful! I'm going to add some more cutout flowers to it as a new wedding gift for my Chinese friends. Anna said.
Anna is from Canada and currently teaches at Yinchuan No. 2 Middle School in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Although she has taught at several schools in Nanjing, Shanghai and Yinchuan, China, this is the first time she has stayed in China for the Chinese New Year.
At present, the global epidemic situation is still grim, and many foreign experts like Anna have chosen to "stay" in China. On the 24th, the Ningxia Science and Technology Department (Foreign Experts Affairs Bureau) hosted the "Happy Ningxia in the Four Seas and Happy Ningxia" 2022 Foreign Experts New Year Welcome Event, and 24 foreign experts from 13 countries, including Anna, were invited to participate. They not only shared their feelings about working and living in Ningxia, but also experienced a series of cultural activities such as paper cutting and painting Chinese painting.
According to Chen Fang, deputy director of the Science and Technology Department of the Autonomous Region, in recent years, Ningxia has successively introduced a series of highly targeted and high gold-content talent policies, providing institutional guarantees for foreign experts to work in Ningbo. In the past five years, more than 2,000 foreign experts have come to Work in Ningxia, and the talent structure has been continuously optimized.
Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Ningxia has actively done a good job in epidemic prevention and control and service guarantee work for foreign experts, including regularly issuing epidemic prevention and control guidelines, donating protective equipment to foreign experts, distributing vegetables, fruits and other daily necessities, simplifying the process of handling work permits for foreigners to come to China, opening free online Chinese language training classes, and carrying out a series of activities for foreign experts to experience Chinese culture, so as to ensure that the work of foreign experts is not affected and their lives are rich and colorful during the epidemic.
"It was my first attempt at paper cutting, it was very interesting, it was able to train people's concentration and finger dexterity, and I did similar crafts when I was a child, but it was not as beautiful as Chinese paper cutting." Anna said.
Affected by the epidemic, Anna has been staying in Ningxia this year, witnessing how Ningxia and even the whole of China fight the epidemic. "China's anti-epidemic measures have achieved very good results. During the winter vacation, I want to go to the gym or shopping at any time, don't worry about getting the new crown pneumonia virus, feel particularly safe. She said.
Bahe from Kyrgyzstan also said in his speech: "Thank you China for giving me a sense of security! ”
Bahe is a Foreign Russian teacher at the Northern University for Nationalities and has been working here for more than 7 years. She also obtained a certificate as a teacher of Chinese as a foreign language and taught Chinese to foreign students.
"I have set up a special 'Belt and Road' exchange class, mainly for Chinese university students and foreign students who speak Russian as their mother tongue. In class, they will communicate and discuss their respective cultures, which is very popular. Bahe said.
In addition to teaching, Bahe also creates paintings based on traditional Chinese stories, operas, New Year paintings and wood carvings, and in May 2021, he founded the "Red Streamer Art Museum" with his family. "I will tell every foreign friend about my understanding of Chinese art and Chinese culture." Bahe said.
As a university teacher, Bahe has experienced first-hand how China has passed on the requirements of "suspending offline teaching and carrying out online teaching" to teachers and students overnight, and effectively ensuring the smoothness of the online teaching network.
"The epidemic has allowed me to see the speed of China, and I have also seen China share its medical experience and solutions to the world, and China is one of the most successful examples in the world." Bahe said.
The Moroccan girl Ning Baoyun learned to write with a brush. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Jianwen
Baoyun from Morocco works as a book translator, film and television translator in Ningxia.
In October 2021, when a new round of COVID-19 struck Ningxia, Baoyun not only took the initiative to sign up as a community volunteer, but also participated in the filming of videos telling the story of Ningxia's fight against the epidemic, introducing Ningxia's measures, practices and experiences in actively responding to the epidemic to countries along the "Belt and Road", and the audience responded strongly.
"I hope that the governments and relevant departments at all levels in Ningxia can give foreigners more opportunities to experience Chinese culture and Ningxia culture, so that we can tell the story of China to the world from an international perspective." Baoyun said.
At the end of the event, Anna, Bahe and Baoyun returned with their own paper cuts and paintings. "The city is full of red lanterns and a festive atmosphere, and my friend invited me to her house to celebrate the Chinese New Year, which I am looking forward to." Anna said.