On November 22nd, BCI held a culture lecture of Introduction to Chinese Tea, Art and Ceremony. Ms Yang, the director of BCI, made an excellent introduction about Chinese tea, including the origin of Chinese tea, different types of tea, tea Art which is composed of evaluation on tea leaves, processing and tasting of tea, the relationship between tea ceremony and tea culture. After the introduction, Ms Party (Chinese name is百迪), one of the audiences, volunteered to perform the Tea Ceremony and serve everyone a cup of delicious Chinese green tea. The audiences are very impressed by the rich variety of Chinese Tea, and particular the spirit and philosophy behind the ceremonies. In the end, Ms Yang gave all participants a small bag of famous Chinese black tea for them to taste back home.

On November 1st, 2014, Business Confucius Institute of Athens (BCI) held a culture lecture of Chinese Calligraphy. Miss Li Weiya, the lecturer, introduced the importance of calligraphy in Chinese culture, the relationship between calligraphy art and Chinese characters, the status of calligraphy in Chinese daily life, and four unique implements to perform Chinese calligraphy. The attendants were very interested and had a quite active interaction with the teacher. Following the introduction, the lecturer provided some traditional tools, including Chinese brush, ink, paper and ink stone, and guided attendants to practice and finish their own calligraphy works. In the end, the lecturer Miss Li gave all attendants the brushes and calligraphy paper as souveniours of this lecture.

On the occasion of 10th Anniversary of Confucius Institute Celebration
Day of Business Confucius Institute in Athens
September 27, 2014, Athens

Dear all BCI friends,

We 're happy to inform you that On the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of Confucius Institute Celebration, and in order to help everybody warm up for the new semester of Chinese language learning and make acquainted with more friends, we are going to hold an event as follows:

Venue: First Floor, No. 46, Kefallinias Street.

Time: Saturday, 27th, September, from 12.00 till 15.00

Activities: Focusing on Chinese culture elements such as experiencing Chinese Calligraphy, Art of Paper Cut, Tasting Chinese cuisines and Chinese Tea, Chinese books exhibition, art and handcrafts exhibition and so on!

We believe you will get a lot of better knowledge about Chinese culture. You, your family and your friends are all welcome to join us!

Look forward to meeting with you!

Business Confucius Institute
Athens University of Business and Economics, Greece

Business Confucius Institute of Athens(BCI) held the cultural lecture of “Chinese Traditional Music and Chinese Folk Musical Instruments” on May 31th, 2014. We invited Eley Yuan and Kevin Miao to be our guest lecturers. About traditional instruments in China, we introduced wind instruments, plucked strings instruments, bowed strings instruments, percussion instruments. Through talking about the classification and the evolvement of the traditional instrument, participants knew more about background of the music development in ancient China. During the introduction, the lecturers played a few very famous traditional Chinese music of Dong Xiao (a kind flute) and Gu Zheng. The attendants also had the chance to try playing and it was a feast both to the eyes and to the ears.

On December 15, 2012, Chinese Cultural Lecture of Beijing Opera was held in the lecture room of BCI. Many BCI students and students from other schools attended the lecture.

Ms Zeng Xin, the teacher of BCI, gave the students an interesting and detailed introduction of Beijing Opera and taught them how to paint facial masks of Beijing opera. After that, students became to paint the facial masks by themselves. At the end of the lecture, Ms Zeng taught the students Su San Qi Jie, a famous Beijing opera song.

On October 26, 2013, in order to celebrate the 4th Anniversary of Business Confucius Institute/AUEB, BCI held a seminar with 40 representatives from Chinese educational and cultural circles and exchanged opinions and suggestions of the sustainable development of Chinese teaching. Professor Konstantine Gatsios，Rector of the Athens University of Business and Economics, Mr. Zhang Zhan, Cultural Attache of Chinese Embassy in Greece, and the Co-Directors of Business Confucius Institute Ms Yang Xiuqin and Dr. Dimitris Kardaras attended the event.

The Rector Prof. Gatsios gave a warm welcome speech on behalf of BCI/AUEB. Mr. Zhang Zhan delivered a speech and gave a high praise to 4-year achievements of BCI so far, especially BCI’s contribution to the promotion of Chinese language and culture, and support to the Chinese teachers who are working in Greece.

During the seminar，Co-Director Ms Yang Xiuqin gave a report of the teaching work, events and activities held by BCI this year and encouraged other Chinese teachers continue to strengthen and improve teaching methodology, good choice of teaching materials and a high attitude towards promoting exchanges between Chinese and Greek cultures. The meeting was ended up with a heated and academic discussion among all participants.