On the evening of November 15th, 2018, Liu Shujie and Li Nannan, two Chinese teachers of Confucius Institute in New Brunswick, were invited to attend the annual International Night of St. John High School. They had a wonderful night of multicultural interaction with many other community organizations from different countries, and also enjoyed colorful performances. CINB was the only one invited to exhibit Chinese culture that evening. At the exhibition, with the help of Sam, an Iranian student from the Chinese class, Liu and Li set up different areas including the award-winning lantern riddle area, the tea art area, the calligraphy area for exhibiting one's skills, the interesting game area... The distinctive characteristics of Chinese culture in the fields of eating, drinking, playing and learning attracted the audience’s active participation.
Attractively bright-colored lanterns with the activities of “guessing riddles to win candy” attracted a large number of children to challenge them. Some of them bowed their heads and meditated. Some gave several answers to wish one of them was right. Others turned around carefully and secretly to consult their parents. Children with right answers cheered and jumped, and the ones with wrong answers were not discouraged and went on to challenge the next. At last, they all were happy to depart with fruitful results without exception.
The fragrant tea art district attracted the attention of a large number of adult friends, who uttered surprise and praise at the sight of small and delicate tea sets. They waited patiently only for a taste of a cup of well-known Chinese tea. At the end of the exhibition, a lady coming in a hurry regretted that she had missed the tea ceremony, but Liu and Li gave her some tea in the hope that she could taste it when she returned home.
From the beginning to the end of the exhibition, there was a little boy always staying at CINB’s booth. He answered all the lantern riddles and won a lot of candy, and he kept practicing rotating the handkerchief and he got more and more skillful with the rotating. He asked “how to say China in Chinese”. Then he wrote “中国” with a brush in a jerky way… His mother came to thank CINB teachers and made an appointment: “see you next year!”

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