SISU art troupe tour in Spain to show unique charm of Chinese culture

he Student Art Troupe of Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) gave a performance tour in Spain, showing Chinese culture through folk dancing and traditional Chinese instrument music.

They traveled six Spanish cities in 12 days, including Las Palmas, Barcelona, Valencia, Leon, Granada and Madrid.

The tour started in the Confucius Institute at Las Palmas, one of the capital cities in the Canary Islands which attracted nearly 200 audience and most of them were students and kids.

“Performing abroad is an unforgettable experience for us,” Qiao Zhenni, a student performer said. “Everyone worked so hard to show the charm of Chinese culture incisively and vividly to the foreign audience.”

They only had two hours to rest and then transformed to another place in Barcelona.

“We hardly have time to travel around though in Spain, because the schedule for us is very tight,” said Xiao Zhikui, who acted as Hua Dan, the female role in Chinese Opera.

“But when we saw the audience’s adorable faces, we were proud at the bottom of our heart,” he said.

In SISU’s partner Confucius Institute in Madrid, the art troupe gave the grand finale with a wide range of cultural displays like Chinese calligraphy, food and tea ceremony. Mr. Lu Fan, the Chinese Ambassador to Spain enjoyed the performance with local audience.

This is the fourth time for SISU Art Troupe accepting the Confucius Institutes’ invitations to performing abroad. They went to Chile and Argentina in 2014, Spain and Morocco in 2013, Japan in 2012.

The President of Valencia was impressed by the performance in 2013 and was willing to proceed further cooperation with SISU.

Qiu Bijun, the student head of SISU Art Troupe went to Spain in 2013 and this is her second time going there. She said performing abroad is a significant way to initiate the interflow of different culture and bring friendly relationship between SISU and other universities around world.