With the sound of the zither, the melodious melody of “Wishing You Stay Well for Long” wafted out of the classroom of China Cultural Centre in Kuala Lumpur (CCCKL). Similarly in the painting class, students crafted autumn-hued themes such as chrysanthemums, moon cakes, crabs and the likes.

As the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia was gradually brought under control, China Cultural Centre recently began to hold cultural exchange activities in a variety of forms with the Mid-Autumn Festival being added to its content. The same went into the guzheng and painting training courses held by China Cultural Centre that allowed students to experience Chinese traditional culture through strings and brushes under the leadership of teachers to welcome the arrival of the festival together.

China Cultural Centre’s director Messrs. Zhang Jiexin said that although affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Centre had always tried to promote the dissemination of Chinese culture and cultural exchanges between China and Malaysia in various ways.

Messrs. Zhang told reporters that in May this year China Cultural Centre together with the local online media jointly launched the “The Author’s Choice” series of interview programs which invited Malaysia’s outstanding Chinese writers to recommend excellent Chinese writers and works to the local people. This activity enriched the spiritual and cultural life of the local people staying at home during the pandemic. It attracted strong response of more than 1 million times in terms of cumulative broadcast of the program. 

In addition, China Cultural Centre had also consecutively launched online tourism promotion programs such as “China in the Countryside”, “VR Tour China” and “This is China” to further the cause of China tourism.

With the local pandemic being gradually brought under control, China Cultural Centre had also progressively resumed its operations with strict prevention and control measures undertaken on the premise. After the suspension of classes for quite some time, guzheng teacher Sara Heng and the students returned to the classroom at China Cultural Centre. 

Sara Heng, hailed from Penang, Malaysia had studied at the Central Conservatory of Music of China for eight years. She said that many Malaysians were very interested in Chinese culture, and China Cultural Centre provides them with a good opportunity to get in touch with it. “While learning guzheng, students can feel a different ambience in the China Cultural Centre, which I think is not found in other places.”

Messrs. Zhang said that in the near future the China Cultural Centre planned to hold more activities to promote cultural exchanges between China and Malaysia, including Malaysia China Culture and Tourism Month – Fun with Nature in cooperation with the Zoo Negara Malaysia. At the same time, the “Mid-Autumn Festival: A Moonmoment to Remember” would be held to make local people feel the charm of Chinese traditional culture. 

In addition, China Cultural Centre’s annual “Beautiful China” series of contest was under way. Among them, the “Beautiful China – The Love Journey” Essay Contest 2020 strived to encourage the people of China and Malaysia to record warm-hearted stories in words about the pandemic, reflecting the cooperation between China and Malaysia in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and the profound friendship between the peoples of the two countries.

Messrs. Zhang said that as a platform for the display of Chinese culture in Malaysia, the cultural centre would continue to act as a bridge for cultural exchanges between the two countries, further integrate the cultural tourism resources of the two countries and organize richer and more colorful cultural tourism activities. This would enhance understanding between the peoples of the two countries. 

“Although impacted by the pandemic whereby many face-to-face exchanges couldn’t be fulfilled, cultural exchanges can still be achieved in many ways,” he said. “We hope to introduce more different means to bring people closer amongst themselves and let more people know more about Chinese culture during the pandemic “.

Source：Xinhua News Agency