Summer is the best season in Germany. The climate in Germany is generally cold and rainy, when the sun comes out occasionally, and the temperature goes up, people will all come out to enjoy the good weather. That’s why most of the street festivals and cultural activities are scheduled in summer, when cities become much more alive. In Dusseldorf, the fireworks lighted up the sky at night to celebrate the Japan festival at the beginning of June. Two weeks later, another important cultural event – China Festival – was also presented to the citizens.

Dusseldorf has the most Asian influence among all of the German cities. One of the main reasons is the close economic cooperation between North-Rhine Westfalia and Asia. As the capital city of North-Rhine Westfalia, Dusseldorf has a mature financial industry and well-developed infrastructure. Besides that, the traditional German industry region the Ruhr has provided a sound industrial basis. These advantages help to attract Asian corporations to set up their European headquarters in Dusseldorf. To the Chinese investors, this city is also their popular choice. As the number of Chinese immigrants is increasing, Chinese culture also begins to prevail here. Authentic Chinese restaurants are not hard to find in town, and many of the German customers have insightful understanding about Chinese cuisine. Regarding the growing popularity of Chinese culture, the China Festival is expanding every year to receive more visitors. This year, despite the occasional shower, the crowds were as excited as ever.

As the official cultural institute and the organizer of “Year of Chinese Culture 2012”, the Confucius Institute’s booth was placed at a prominent spot on the venue. It was shortly after noon, and there were already people gathering to ask questions about Chinese culture. Like in the past years, the Confucius Institute prepared a program of selected activities to present the Chinese culture and language. Visitors could participate in a test Chinese course, learn calligraphy or get themselves a Chinese name.

The most popular activity was the test Chinese course. The age range and backgrounds of the “students” were various. There were retirees who were looking for a new hobby as well as college students who were preparing themselves for the competitive job market. Also Chinese parents brought their German-born children to learn the language of their origin, while German parents brought their children here to start learning the potential business language of the future. In spite of the noisy circumstances on the festival, the students were learning very intently. Most of them had none experience with the Chinese language, and they were confused by the four tones in the pronunciation. They adapted all kinds of methods to distinguish the tones, for example some of them were using gesture to mark the ups and downs. But only half an hour was too short. Anyhow, everyone still learned something at the end of the course, for example they could say “Xie Xie Lao Shi, Zai Jian” (Thank you teacher, bye bye) to thank the teacher. Many of the course participants went to inquire the details of signing up for Chinese courses at the Confucius Institute, and Ms. Ito and the two interns from the secretary were very busy answering the questions.

Another interesting activity was the calligraphy course. Mr. Lv Chen has been teaching calligraphy for years. He has extensive experience in teaching beginners who have no background knowledge of Chinese characters, and he is also a very patient instructor. At the course, Mr. Lv explained the structures of several simple Chinese characters and the differences of the strokes. I observed a course where a woman wrote the character “王” under the comprehensive instructions from Mr. Lv. After the course, the women folded up the rice paper and put it into her purse carefully, as if it was a priceless treasure. Though it was just a simple piece of calligraphy, but as the first work of her life, it deserved to be well preserved.

It was Confucius Institute’s second time to participate in the China Festival. The Institute Director Dr. Eberspächer was deeply affected by the enthusiasm from the public: “The China Festival demonstrated the importance of Chinese culture in this city. We are glad to have the chance to present the Chinese culture to a wider range of the public, and we are very impressed by how interested the visitors all are in our programs.”

The popularity of Chinese is the best proof of the growing cooperation between Germany and China in all fields. Another important event on the China Festival is the “Chongqing Culture Week”. Chongqing is Dusseldorf’s sister city. Today was the opening of the Chongqing Culture Week, and for the whole week the Confucius Institute and the China Center will organize a series of activities to present the special Ba Shu culture from the Chongqing region. Acrobatic shows from the Chongqing Acrobatic Art Troupe, photo and ethnic cultural exhibitions are all on the list of programs. The German audience will have the best chance to experience the diversity of the Chinese culture.

The new trend on China Festival was the increasing civilian cultural communication. In the past, the Chinese government was the leading force in cultural communication, but recently, the Chinese community in Germany has been making an effort in introducing the “Pop Culture”. Today, the line was impressively long in front of the Bubble Tea vendor. At the fried noodle vendor I even overheard a German customer asking for “Lao Gan Ma”, which was a sort of authentic chili sauce from Sichuan. The public’s reaction to the China Festival proved the value of the hard work that had been done through all the years. The dragon danced, and this time it was the gesture of friendship.