Submitted by urci on
This year the Chinese pavilion returns after being absent from the Mosaic event for the last two years. The pavilion was located at the multipurpose room of Riddell Centre at the University of Regina. All the cultural activities were presented by the Regina Chinese Canadian Association with sponsorship from the Confucius Institute at the University of Regina.
“Mosaic 2014” is a festival organized by Regina Multicultural Council. It hosted 21 pavilions this year. The festival started at June 5 and ended in June 7, 2014. Many are very familiar faces, such as the Scottish, Irish, German, Italian, Ukrainian and Caribbean pavilions. Each pavilion showcases its unique culture. In particular, the Chinese pavilion displays 10 to 15 performances of popular music and dancing with colourful, traditional garments in each one-hour show. Some of the items on the drink and food menus include sweet and sour pork, ginger beef, lemon chicken, fried rice and noodles, mixed vegetables, spring roll, fried shrimp, chicken balls, Chinese tea, cool Tsingdao beer and Shanghai soft drink.
While visitors enjoying their food, they can watch traditional Chinese folk dances, listen to folk songs, musical instruments performance. For those sporty people, lion dance, Chinese Gong Fu, martial art, Tai Chi, Chinese Yoyo performances and demonstrations are exciting. Performers from Chinese Dance School of Saskatchewan, Red Leaves Performing Arts Group, Bak Hsing Kwoon Kung Fu Association, Regina School of Chinese Studies, as well as the University of Regina, actively participated in the show.
Traditional Chinese dance staged in the pavilion is not like Canadian dance; it's very soft and often dances with colorful costume, umbrella, fans, and silk ribbon. The key designers of the dance performance are retired professors from China Central University for Nationalities, who blended dance art, fashion, song and music into stage performance with a combination of Soloist, Tibetan dance, Mongolian dance, Lantern and QiPao fashion show , GuZheng and Pipa instruments. All programs feature the culture of 56 nationalities in China. While the YoYo and lion dance with drums show the acrobatic aspect of youth spirit, Taiji and BaDuanJin with elegant music show the temptation to those aged health lover. This year, over 7000 people visited the Chinese pavilion during the three day show.
All the pavilion decorations and layout, performance on stage, music and acoustic equipment control, food and bar, pavilion security and parking, outdoor exhibitions are the work of 120 volunteers. Volunteers bring in their passion and expertise in food and entertainment. Without their time, effort and energy, the Chinese pavilion would not have been possible.
The Confucius Institute at the University of Regina, sponsored the Chinese pavilion and contributed on-site manager and ambassador to the pavilion. Meanwhile, the exhibition tables of Confucius Institute attracted thousands of visitors. The use of abacus, Chinese zodiac, Sunzi Strategy of War, the student rule of YueLu Academy, Chinese calligraphy and painting, Weiqi are the common interests of consultation. The activities in the pavilion served the purpose of entertainment and cultural teaching for the public in Regina.
