When the Beijing Winter Olympics met the Spring Festival, foreign reporters said: "This is a good opportunity for us to understand Chinese culture!" ”

Source: China Daily

Beijing, 2 Feb (China Daily) -- On 1 February, the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee held a press conference on the theme of "Winter Olympics, Sports, and Culture" at the main media center, and the two press spokesmen introduced the traditional customs of the Chinese New Year to dozens of foreign journalists attending the press conference. After the press conference, some foreign media reporters still seemed to be a little unfinished, and when the reporter left the scene, he heard several foreign reporters communicating in English, "I ate Chinese dumplings, which are very delicious." At the press conference just now, I said that I would eat tangyuan on the fifteenth day of the first month, and I wanted to taste it when the time came. They said as they walked.

In the past few days, with the arrival of the lunar Chinese New Year's Eve and the first day of the Chinese New Year, the main media center of the Beijing Winter Olympics is full of strong New Year flavor, which makes many foreign media peers more interested in the Spring Festival. At the press conference on February 1, Zhao Weidong, spokesman of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, gave an introduction to the holding of the Beijing Winter Olympics in conjunction with the customs of the Spring Festival, such as retiring the old and welcoming the new, family reunion, and opening the door to welcome guests. Another spokesperson, Yan Jiarong, highlighted the New Year's flavor of many places involved in the Winter Olympics, such as palace lanterns, Spring Festival, Fuzi, window flowers, paper-cutting, etc., deepening foreign journalists' understanding of China's traditional culture and customs. This conference also made the main media center more prosperous.

On the first day of the Chinese New Year, reporters were more than once greeted by foreign reporters with Chinese "Happy New Year" at the main media center of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Catching up with the Beijing Winter Olympics of the Spring Festival has given these journalists from all over the world more opportunities to learn more about traditional Chinese culture, and through them, the Chinese cultural story with the Spring Festival as the core will also be passed on to more foreigners.

At the main media center of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the lunar Chinese New Year's Eve arranged a number of activities to display chinese Spring Festival folklore on the day, foreign reporters wrote down the word "Fu", cut down the window flowers, and also connected to watch how Beijing citizens celebrated the festival, truly feeling the "Taste of the New Year". Maya Havting, a Slovenian journalist who ate a bowl of dumplings in the main media center that night, had a certain understanding of Chinese culture before, and she also told reporters about some Spring Festival customs, "You will not clean the room, because this will 'sweep' good luck away; you will get together as a family, and you will also eat dumplings, dumplings are my favorite Chinese food!" Havertine believes that holding it during the Spring Festival makes the Beijing Winter Olympics more meaningful, "Although it is difficult to achieve because of the epidemic, I really hope that everyone can be together on such a day." ”

Of course, more foreign journalists learned about the Spring Festival and more Chinese culture during this interview with the Beijing Winter Olympics. Adam Wood, a reporter for USA Today, told reporters: "Before this interview, I knew very little about the Spring Festival, but now I know that this year is the Year of the Tiger, and you have 12 animal symbols of the 12 zodiac signs. Under the reporter's reminder, Wood is also ready to taste dumplings during the Spring Festival, "I have never eaten dumplings before, but it seems that these two days are the most suitable opportunity to try." ”

Japan's Current Affairs News Agency reporter Hasebe Ryota once ate a Chinese restaurant in Tokyo and also visited Chinatown in Nagasaki, Japan, but before this interview in Beijing, he did not know how to celebrate the Spring Festival Chinese, "I have tried many Chinese restaurants in Japan, and I have also played the Three Kingdoms game made by Japanese game companies, but this is my first time to participate in the celebration of the Chinese New Year, if it were not for this interview with the Winter Olympics, I may not have had the opportunity to experience (the Atmosphere of the Spring Festival). Yoshita Hasebe's colleague, a Japanese television reporter, learned to use Chinese to say "Happy New Year" in less than a week after arriving in China, and when he briefly communicated with this reporter in the elevator yesterday, he pestered the reporter to teach him another Chinese, "Learning Chinese is difficult, but it is also very interesting." ”

Brazilian journalist Arlene Pravnik, who works on American television, believes that holding the Winter Olympics during the Spring Festival gives foreign journalists like her who live "on the other side of the world" the opportunity to feel and understand traditional Chinese festivals and related cultures after work, "Although we can't go to many attractions because of the epidemic, when we come to Beijing during the Spring Festival, this thing itself can make us closer to the Spring Festival and have more opportunities to understand Chinese culture." The Brazilian girl said with a smile.