As Part of a partnership with universities in China, The Confucius Institute at NMSU brought a song and dance troupe from China to celebrate the start of fall.
Students from China played traditional Chinese music and performed folk dances to celebrate a traditional autumnal festival as part of a tour of Southwestern Universities. Chinese side Director of the Confucius Institute at NMSU, Ren Quiang, said it’s the first time performances like this have been brought to Las Cruces.
“This is the first time,” Ren said. “That performers from China are coming here to show us some typical Chinese performances such as some folk songs, a folk dance, a traditional music, something like that.”
American side Director of the Confucius Institute Elvira Hammond said people in Las Cruces could relate to the autumnal festival.
“I think it’s not unlike some of the harvest festivals we have here in Dona Ana County,” Hammond said. “When we have the Hatch Chile Festival and things like that. It’s a great celebration of a good harvest, and a celebration of fall, getting ready for winter, battening down the hatches all of those things, it’s a celebration of nature’s bounty.”
She says this is also part of New Mexico State’s mission to be a diverse campus.
“This is a very diverse campus,” Hammond said. “We have over 1,000 international students here at New Mexico State from almost 90 some countries now. And we have a thriving Chinese Students and scholars association here along with the Confucius Institute, so we are here to serve the needs of the whole campus to bridge our culture and the culture of China.”
She says it’s very important for young people to be exposed to different cultures and traditions.
“Right now students minds are opening to so many different aspects of the whole world,” Hammond said. “Our students when they come out of NMSU with Science, technology, humanities, the arts, social sciences, they are ready to conquer the world and the more they know about that world the better poised they are to take advantage of all it has to offer.”
The students traveling from China were not studying performing arts, but came from wide range backgrounds including nursing, education, and accounting.
