On September 26, 2015, to celebrate the Second Global Confucius Institute Day, the Confucius Institute in Sofia held a series of culture promotion activities in the downtown Boris Park. As the first major culture activities held by the Institute since its foundation, the activities received warm welcome and active responses from the locals.

From 11 a.m., 5 tents were set up in the park of the Confucius Institute in Sofia, where various interesting activities for promoting Chinese language culture were held simultaneously. The activities included calligraphy explanation and exercise, Chinese language public experience lessons, Chinese paper cutting, tea ceremony performances, Tai Chi performances, and singing and dancing performances. Despite light rains from time to time, audiences enjoyed the performances in a warm atmosphere with continual applause.

Citizens who participated in these activities sometimes tasted palatable Chinese tea, sometimes exercised writing Chinese characters in front of calligraphy stands under the guidance of teachers and tried to write their own names in Chinese. Many children and adults read aloud some common Chinese words and sentences with Chinese teachers in a tent of Chinese language class, showing great interests when they succeeded in saying “Nihao (Hello)”, “Xiexie (Thank you)” and “Wo ai ni (I love you)” on their own. On the performing stage of songs and dances, there were shows and dances performed by students from the teaching centre of the Confucius Institute in Sofia for the coming Mid-autumn Festival, likeSeeking Friends,Beautiful Girls,Small ApplesandWhen Will the Bright Moon Rise, and traditional dances by Bulgarian Folk Dance Troupe, as well as some classic folk songs familiar to Bulgarian sung by Chinese language teachers. At last, Bulgarian students in traditional Chinese folk costumes and Chinese teachers from the Institute in traditional Bulgarian folk costumes performed a “costume show”, which fully displayed the spirit of cultural exchange between China and Bulgaria and highlighted the theme of “Cultural Exchange and World Peace” as well, pushing the activity to its climax in joyful and peaceful background music.

Prof. Ge Zhiqiang, Chinese Director of the Confucius Institute in Sofia, and Teacher Aksinia Koleva, Local Director of the Institute, together with teachers and students from the Institute, university and high school students in Bulgaria, and thousands of people from various circles, joined in a series of activities of the Second Global Confucius Institute Day. Several media including Bulgaria National Television and China Xinhua News Agency reported this grand event.