A busy week of celebrations, dance, culture, singing, and performances ended with the participation of a number of countries. The international culture festival &international freshman welcome party was held at SDU Gymnasium. The theme of this year’s culture festival was “I love Shandong University & Shandong university is my home”. Every year in the last week of October, a culture festival and a culture festival show is held in Shandong University central campus for the international students to welcome freshmen. International students from different countries participate in the culture festival and show their countries’ culture via clothes, music, dance and food. Year 2015 marked the 15th anniversary of this annual festival and show.. This year, Shandong University enrolled more than 3500 students from 110 countries,and for the first time the show was held in the grand Gymnasium.

Culture is a way to bring harmony to the society via exchanges of knowledge and thoughts and the respect of others' belief and cultural heritage. The presentation was awesome. Students from each country tried their best to exceed the other countries presentation of culture. I will introduce the stalls and the Festival show programs.

This year on October 29, the Multi-Cultural World was held as usual in the little woods of SDU central campus. 19 countries’ students of SDU from different campuses participated enthusiastically in this festival. Some senior students carrying the experience of last year festival made this year show memorable.

Mentioned below are the 19 participants: China, Pakistan, Mongolia, Republic of Korea, Nepal, Bangladesh, Laos, Russia, Palestine, Kazakhstan, Samoa, Guinea-Bissau, The Republic of Belarus, Rwanda, Botswana, Lesotho, Azerbaijan, Thailand , Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Students from each country put forward the best efforts and started making plans couples of weeks forehead. On the eve of the festival some of the students even visited and continued to decorate the stalls late at night. Winners were decided by voting, and each SDU student and teacher cast the vote. The result was announced on October 30 on the Freshmen Welcome Party. The Special Award was given to Mongolia stall. The First Prize went to Laos ad Arab Region. The Second Prize was won collectively by Korea and Nepal. The Third Prize was given to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Russia/Belarus.

On October 30, the Freshman Welcome Show was held in the Gymnasium. Performers from more than 10 countries participated in the singing, dance and put through the heart-catching performance. The Excellence Scholarship Prizes for the delf-financed international students from SDU were distributed then.

The opening Speech was delivered by Zou Nan, Director of International Affairs Department. He introduced SDU and welcomed the new prospective students. The six hosts from different countries welcomed the guests in their native languages and Chinese. The stage was rocked by the first performance as an enthusiastic guy enters the stage with his partners. The performers were JICE group from Africa and the name of the dance was Bayete. The 2nd performance was Singing and Dance: The Scenery of Russia, showing the beautiful scenery of Russia and beautiful girls singing and dancing .Then performers from Mongolia danced on the song Lan tian zhi guo zi sun (citizen of crystal sky). Singers from South Pacific island nations performed on song Aiyou mom (Oh Mama).The nice dance performance was shown by Thai students on Glamorous Paradise in Siam.

The Wushu (Spirit of Chinese Kong Fu) by Zhong Hua Wu Hun from the Meihuazhuang Wushu Association of SDU was something amazing.

As a representative of Excellent Foreign Students, I shared my experience of study and life in China. I said, “Wo shi Wenhua Xilu ren, wo shi yige Shanda ren (I am from Wenhua West Road and I am a SDUer).” I shared the story of my internship in Qilu Hospital, “A girl with Thyroid Cancer was treated successfully and passed the Gaokao, National College Entrance Exam.” The success of the patient is the success of doctors. And Jin Zhujing and Fredrick (Abdullah) also told about their China life.

After wonderful songs and dances from Korea, Nepal and other countries, Multi-Cultural World Stall Prize distribution ceremony was held. And the theme song of this year’s Culture Festival was sung by students from five different countries entitled My SDU, My Home to conclude the show.

On the evening of October 31, another show was arranged by College of International Education of SDU, and students from College of International Education participated. The dance by JICF group from Africa, song and dance by Korea students, guitar solo from Mexico, songs from China and The Republic of Congo were very impressive.

Pakistan performers group photo before the Folk Bhanggrra Dance

Then came the climax of the show when the National Dances by Sri Lanka Geylon Aura Group and Specially Dance of Pakistan by Muhammad Ali Akbar and Muhammad Ijaz Group were performed. The performance made the audience wave and some of them started dancing and appreciating the performers. The audience and the spectators in the hall were amazed with the mind blowing performance.

Later on programmes brought by students from China, Turkmenistan, Russia, Korea, Thailand, Mongolia made the spectators laugh. Chinese Painting & Calligraphy Art by Association of Painting & Calligraphy Art, and Art of Tai Ji (Kong Fu) by students from China, Russia and Italy were amazing performances.

In the end, the chorus Good Time by Chinese freshmen of School of International Education let the audience wave their hand and gave them an outstanding end to this memorable month. It left everlasting memories and happiness for everyone. I love Shandong and Shandong is my home.

Written by Dr.Muhammad Shahbaz (Ali), Ph.D. student at Shandong University School of Medicine on CSC (China Scholarship Council) Scholarship.

Edited by Xie Tingting