TSUCI took part in 13th Annual Health, Education, Science Fair, and Carnival

March 24th , 2018

March 24th, 2018, Texas Southern University Confucius Institute was invited to 13th Annual Health, Education, Science Fair, and Carnival. The Fair and Carnival was held at Sunnyside Park, located at 3502 Bellfort, Houston to spread health knowledge, introduce summer camp and provide free activities. Professor Xiao Yi, Volunteers teachers Heng Zhang, Zhi Jin, Jing Wang and Chengzhu Xie took part in it.

The celebration started from 10:30am - 1:30pm. At 10 am, different booths had already set up and people started to get in. TSUCI brought four activities: Chinese Martial Arts, Chinese Characters Tattoos, Chinese name and Opera facial painting. Chinese martial arts can easily improve people's spirit and physical fitness, defend fitness, advance excellence, and be happy and accommodate. Chinese Volunteer teacher Heng Zhang Dressed in Tai Chi clothes, the parents of passing teachers and students showed the beauty of Chinese Tai Chi. Many students eagerly tried to follow Mr. Zhang to learn Tai's tactics.

Chinese Characters Tattoos was the most popular activities on that day. Volunteer teachers provided participants with different meanings of Chinese characters followed by English translation. So that participants understand the meaning of the corresponding Chinese characters. Participants can choose their favorite Chinese characters according to their own ideas or preferences through translation. Volunteer teachers wrote the Chinese characters on the participants' arms and wrists. Some students saw Chinese characters on their arms and showed off to their fellow friends. Some students invited their friends to participate in Chinese characters tattoos. Some students even wanted to write Chinese characters in their legs. Then they explained to family and friends the meaning of each character. In this session, the most popular Chinese characters are love（爱）、happiness（幸福）、家庭（family）、美好（beauty）、友谊（friendship）、梦想（dream）

For them, the Chinese they chose had different meanings. A pair of brothers came to our booth. The younger brother said he wanted to have characters of"dream". Their mother smiled and said: "Because he often dreams that our family bought a new car." After they left, the older brother came and asked the volunteer teacher: "Can I write the Chinese character 'car' on my arm?" He got a “car” on his arm and left satisfactorily. A little girl wanted to write the Chinese character "family" on her arm. She said: "Because I love my family."The third activity is to have Chinese names. Chinese volunteer teacher Zhi Jin gave a similar Chinese name according to the participants’ English name. She wrote Chinese characters on white paper, pinned the pinyin on it, and patiently taught them how to read Chinese names correctly. Many children were excited when they got their Chinese name and showed it to their family and friends. They practiced the pronunciation of the name in their mouths. The fourth activity was Opera facial painting, which was quite popular among girls. They chose their favorite colors, painted Beijing opera masks and proudly showed their works to volunteer teachers after the completion. This year was the 17th year of the annual Houston Health Education Carnival. TSUCI was honored to have the opportunity to participate in such a grand event in Houston, and was willing to bring more Chinese culture and Chinese elements to this beautiful city so that young people in Houston can have more opportunities to experience Chinese culture.