Despite of the current COVID-19 Pandemic and lockdown in the UK, USTB-DMU Confucius Institute (CI) delivered an online contest to mark the Dragon Boat Festival from 24^th to 26^th June 2020, and CI Mandarin students enjoyed the event.

Pic 1 – Bilingual video on customs of the Dragan Boat Festival

Since a physical event to celebrate the traditional Chinese holiday is obviously impossible, the CI teachers made videos of introductions of the Dragon Boat Festival for students learning Chinese to get them ready to take part in an online contest on Kahoot, which is a popular learning platform. This contest questions focused on traditional but still popular Chinese customs of observing the special day. The contest was well-received, with around 60 people taking part in it by midday 26 June. All participants will get a reward such as a Chinese knot or writing brush set besides prizes for top winners.

Pic 2 - Dragon Boat Festival Online Quiz

Shahab Khan, a CI student, was so excited that he shared a feedback via email: “I’ve enjoyed playing the game; doing the quiz was very interesting and gave me vivid knowledge of the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival.” Amber Page, another student, wrote to say that she was quite interested in the five-color string bracelets people wear on the special day. She hopes that the bracelets will sweep away the virus and bring the pandemic to an end soon.

Draft: Wei Zhiping

Revision: Yang Yingjun