Wednesday

CHANGSHA, May 10 ( tasteallchina ) -- Giant animal puppets held up by actors and aerial dancers swinging via red ribbons, all formed part of a puppet show on top of a shopping mall which impressed the audience with its French flavor in the central Chinese city of Changsha on Wednesday. The puppet show "De La Fontaine" is on a tour in China from May 4 to 12, and will be staged in Harbin in northeast China this weekend, after earlier hitting the streets of central China's Wuhan and Changsha. Staged by international theater company Archibald Caramantran, the shows are part of this year's Croisements Festival marking 60 years of diplomatic ties between China and France, according to Thomas Penot, cultural attache at the French Consulate General in Wuhan. The shows, staged in open-air public places, are based on French writer Jean de La Fontaine's fables "Red Balloon" and "Rooster and Stork Romance." "We really enjoy performing for a Chinese audience, as audiences here are very playful when interacting with the actors," said Olivier Hagenloch, the company's artistic director, adding that the visit has helped the company understand China better. The Croisements Festival has provided a platform for cultural exchange…

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, July 10 ( tasteallchina ) -- The Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) signed a memorandum of understanding and a student exchange agreement with the City University of Hong Kong to enhance academic collaboration, local media reported on Wednesday. The signing ceremony took place at UBD on Tuesday. According to the newly signed MoU and student exchange agreement, the two universities will strengthen academic and research collaborations in various areas of mutual interest, the local daily Borneo Bulletin reported. In 2023, the UBD, the top university in Brunei, signed a memorandum of understanding with the City University of Hong Kong, focusing on technology transfer, commercialization, and business matchmaking. The Universiti Brunei Darussalam was established in 1985, and is now comprised of eight academic faculties, nine research institutes and six academic service centers covering a range of disciplines.

JUBA, July 17 ( tasteallchina ) -- The fourth Chinese language course for medical staff in South Sudan commenced Wednesday, attracting about 100 students eager to learn and seize opportunities that come with learning Mandarin. In his opening remarks, Isaac Maker, medical director of Juba Teaching Hospital, encouraged the students to learn one of the most important languages globally. Maker said that proficiency in the Chinese language would create opportunities for medical practitioners to advance their studies and acquire new knowledge under the people-to-people exchange program being currently implemented by the Chinese and South Sudan governments. "I would like to express my sincere thanks to the work being done by the Chinese doctors in Juba Teaching Hospital. They are really helping the people of South Sudan and I thank the Chinese government for sending doctors here and across Africa," Maker said in Juba, the capital of South Sudan. Gift Gibson Natana, deputy director-general of Juba Teaching Hospital, noted that learning Chinese presents opportunities for enhancing career development for medical practitioners at the hospital. According to Mu Jianjun, the counselor for Economic and Commercial Affairs at the Chinese Embassy in South Sudan, the people in the African country have warmly welcomed…