Nigerian youths attracted to Chinese art

The Chinese Cultural Center in Abuja Nigeria organized a two-week training course in paper cutting and martial arts for Nigerian students and youths in an effort to promote Chinese culture.

In the past two weeks, students from different secondary schools in Abuja joined the classes, including an international school with students from Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Morocco.

The classes were taught by Fengying Wang, Lianxia Li and Lining Wang of the Qinghai Cultural group.

This is their first time to Nigeria. In the past these teachers have been to Benin and some western African countries to show the brilliant Chinese culture.

Tibetan paper cutting master Fengying Wang give the idea of "drawing before cutting" to the students. In her opinion, drawing skills will help them to know paper cutting easily. Since this is the first time to do paper cutting, students were very happy to learn.

Last Saturday, an interactive martial class was held in a park in town which gathered nearly 100 amateurs. John Chukwu, a student who had learned Kung Fu for some years was part of them. Lining Wang corrected some of his mistakes and helped him to improve his skill. John said "I've been waiting for this day for long."

The classes were organized on the occasion of the Qinghai Cultural Expo from 8-22 May. At the closing ceremony of the ceremony on Friday. The students exhibited the skills taught to them and presented their teachers with gifts and souvenirs.

The organizer of the event, Mr. Yan Xiangdong, the cultural counselor of China's Embassy in Nigeria expressed his delight at the participation of Nigerian youths, hoping they can create something new by combining their own culture with Chinese art.