Foreign students find love for China's arts

CHANGSHA－Dancing the long drum dance of China's Yao ethnic group, along with thousands of Chinese students, Zambian national Donald Lusambo felt happy.

Lusambo, a student at the Central South University in China's Hunan province, says he had been fascinated by the long drum dance since the first time he saw it.

"The dance reminded me of my hometown. The uninhibited and bold style is very similar to the enthusiastic and passionate African culture," says Lusambo, adding he dreamed of dancing with many people when he was little and eventually realized the dream in China.

Lusambo was eager to pass on his understanding of the long drum dance, so he studied the dance and culture of the Yao people and finally became a member of the long drum dance inheritance base at the university.

"The world keeps changing, but the Chinese people have been holding fast to their traditional culture, which I think is very admirable," he adds.

Lusambo is not the only student attracted by Chinese culture. On the culturally diverse campus, a greater number of international students have explored the beauty of traditional Chinese culture.

For Nzaramba Antoine, a Rwandan national, the traditional Chinese dragon dance is soul-stirring.

"I've never seen such a joyful, orderly and constantly changing performance," Antoine recalls the first time he watched the university dragon dance club's performance. "I could not wait to join the team."

However, the training was not easy. Antoine had to learn from scratch. He kept practicing the basic skills every day to perfectly carry out the jumps and turns and lift the dragon high in the air.

As one of the first foreign students to join the dragon dance team, Antoine tried to promote the dragon dance among more foreign students. In 2015, he co-founded the university's first international student dragon dance team. Over the past six years, the team has gathered nearly 100 students from Mongolia, Madagascar, Benin, among dozens of other countries, and won gold medals in national dragon dance competitions.

"The Chinese dragon demonstrates wisdom and strength, while the dragon dance embodies a sense of unity which is deeply rooted in Chinese culture," Antoine explains. "Dragon dance is not an individual activity, it requires teamwork. Through dragon dance, I feel closely connected with Chinese culture."

Music has no boundaries. Mba Nchama Pedro Nsue, from Equatorial Guinea, bears testament to this.

After listening outside the door of the rehearsal room to some traditional Chinese folk songs being performed by the university's choir, Pedro was in awe.

He walked straight into the room and told the choir's leader: "I want to join the choir. I love Chinese music."

"His eyes were sparkling when he spoke those words," says Wang Tianze, the choir leader.

In the beginning, it was difficult to incorporate Pedro's voice into the choir due to his speaking style and vocalization habits. "My voice was a little abrupt in the chorus, but my friends in the choir kept helping me adjust it," recalls Pedro.

As well as overcoming problems with pronunciation and intonation, Pedro also spent a lot of time understanding the rich and deep meaning of the Chinese lyrics.

"I always look for my friends in the choir and see how they understand the lyrics and learn from them," says Pedro. He adds that when he sings the Yellow River Cantata, for example, the roaring Yellow River tumbles into his mind. While he sings Liuyang River in the correct dialect, he imagines how the river looks.

"I love Chinese songs. They give me a new perspective on China," Pedro says.

"I'm so lucky to study in China. The culture, people and food all made me fall in love with the country," says the young man, who is due to return home after graduation.

Xinhua