NAIROBI, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Chinese and Kenyan nationals celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival on Friday at the rooftop garden of the Global Trade Centre in Nairobi, in the first East African edition of a global poetry event.
The gathering was held under "We Share the Same Moon - Mid-Autumn Poetry Gathering," a global brand of China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which authorized the Nairobi event as the series' first stop in East Africa. The name comes from a line by the Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Jiuling: "Though far apart, we gaze upon the same moon."
The program centered on poetry, with students from the Confucius Institutes at the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University reciting Chinese verse, playing the guzheng, a traditional Chinese zither, and performing martial arts. During the celebration, Zhang Bao, whom the organizers described as a second-generation inheritor of Sichuan Opera's face-changing art, performed the mask-swapping technique and a Chinese tea ceremony, while calligraphy and paintings donated by overseas Chinese affairs offices in Guangzhou and in Anhui Province were on display.
Guo Haiyan, Chinese ambassador to Kenya, noted that this year marks the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges. Kenyan friends, especially young people, have shown growing enthusiasm for learning the Chinese language and exploring traditional Chinese culture, helping write an even brighter future for China-Africa cooperation, she said.
"Friendship between China and Kenya is time-honored. And it's rooted in the hearts of our people and will be strengthened from generation to generation," Guo said.
Miriam Achieng Kenyatta, a 23-year-old geospatial engineering student at the University of Nairobi and the Kenyan champion of the 25th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students, recited "A Moonlit Night on the Spring River," a classical poem by the Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Ruoxu.
"I think Zhongqiu Jie (the Mid-Autumn Festival) is basically about friendship and family bonds. There's that saying of no matter how far we might be, we see the same moon," Kenyatta said.
Fiona Ngesa, deputy director for Asia and the Middle East at the Kenya Tourism Board, said such events could help attract more tourists to Kenya while encouraging more Kenyans to learn about Chinese culture. She added that she learns something new about China and its language every day, and hopes one day to hold a conversation in Chinese.
The celebration was organized by the China General Chamber of Commerce in East Africa.
