On a Saturday morning in early September, inside a shop named Lihua on the streets of Nancy, France, the shop owner, Fengyu Li Mikusek, sat at a table sipping tea and chatting with a few regular customers. That day was just before the Chinese traditional Mid-Autumn Festival, and Mrs Mikusek had also prepared Chinese mooncakes for everyone.
'A platform for local Chinese'
Mrs Mikusek also holds the position of President of the Association des Chinois en Lorraine of France. Since starting her term as president in 2013, with the concerted efforts of the Association's core members, Mrs Mikusek has been committed to introducing Chinese culture to locals by holding large-scale cultural activities during traditional Chinese festivals, such as dragon and lion dances during Spring Festival and cultural performances during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
As this year coincides with the 50th anniversary of China-EU diplomatic relations, the Association also collaborated with the local consulate to host a "China-EU 50th Anniversary Cultural Performance." A performance troupe from Jiangxi blended traditional elements like Kunqu opera, erhu, and pipa with Western music such as piano and guitar, successfully using cultural events to promote Chinese culture.
"The response was very enthusiastic," Mrs Mikusek said when asked about the impact of this series of cultural activities. She cited, for example, that the Spring Festival celebration attracted 3,500 participants, mostly locals from Nancy and the surrounding greater region.
Mrs Mikusek stated that the Association has always worked closely with the Nancy city government to organize various cultural activities. While promoting Chinese culture, this also provides an important platform for the local Chinese and international student community.
From technique to culture: 'China and the West are so different'
In addition to holding large cultural events during festivals, Mrs Mikusek has gradually transformed her shop, Lihua, into a small cultural center. She explained, "We also have calligraphy classes, Chinese painting classes, Chinese language classes, as well as guqin and guzheng classes, tea art classes, and we hold cultural lectures every two weeks. The lectures all extend from Chinese and Asian culture."
Jianchung Tan, a Chinese painting teacher, has been running a studio at Lihua since 2013, teaching locals traditional Chinese ink and watercolor painting on weekends. Some of his more senior students have been learning with him for seven or eight years.
Unlike Western painting, which emphasizes the layering of colors, Chinese painting focuses more on the combination of void and solid, using blank space to create artistic conception. which Tan described as the most difficult part for French students. However, he added, if not for learning here, they might never have had the opportunity to understand such a culture. He hopes that through learning Chinese painting courses, students not only master some techniques but also understand some deeper connotations of Chinese culture.
The guqin course currently has the fewest students. But the guqin teacher, Wu Daomin, noted that for some French students with a less solid foundation in Chinese, learning the guqin has the unexpected effect of improving their Chinese. Wu explained that because guqin music uses Jianzipu, a type of shorthand tablature, which simplifies the fingerings and positions for left and right hands, it takes radicals or components and combines them in a certain way to form notation characters. "By learning our Jianzipu, we incidentally teach Chinese as well," Wu said.
Frenchman Patrick Jordy, who has been participating in various classes at Lihua for over 20 years, described the place as "like another world." He enjoys coming here and can feel how different the Chinese world is from the West. Mrs Mikusek told us that whenever she is in France, she makes sure to spend more time at the shop, communicating with these locals. "By keeping this shop, it's like having a 'dharma center', allowing all those who love Chinese culture to find us. I actually don't put much thought into the business aspect."
Seeing is believing: Let them experience firsthand
In 2012, Mrs Mikusek organized a trip to China for a group of French students for the first time, with Hong Kong as the first stop. She recalled, "Their reaction was very positive; it gave me a great sense of achievement." Since then, she has organized trips to various places in China for French people every year. To date, many participants have visited China more than 10 times.
Frenchwoman Nicole Clin's first trip was to Yunnan. Talking about her impression of the place, Nicole still seemed very excited, "It was fantastic, I liked Yunnan very, very much." Later, she also followed Mrs Mikusek to Inner Mongolia, Nanjing in Jiangsu, Wuzhen in Zhejiang, and other places, experiencing Miao culture, traveling the Silk Road... "I think China is a very, very big country, with many things yet to be discovered, so every time I have a wonderful experience."
Through these repeated trips, the group members have gradually become familiar with each other, becoming good friends, and the topics they discuss are also fond memories of China. Mrs Mikusek admitted that as a Chinese person, talking about China's merits abroad isn't really persuasive enough, but when a foreigner goes to China once, they can actually influence people around them through their words and actions.
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