NUML’s Spring Festival highlights Pak-China ironclad friendship

ISLAMABAD: At the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) in Islamabad, Syeda Rimsha Ali Shah and her friend Muhammad Irfan have been rehearsing a Chinese pop song to present it in front of Chinese and local audiences.

“Chinese is my major, but I found the song very difficult. The notes were hard to catch,” Shah said after her performance.

The event, which was held here Monday, welcomed the spring season through performances of complex Chinese songs and classic dance by students from the university. Students from Pakistan also performed traditional tea ceremonies for Chinese guests.

For Khadija Hassan, studying Chinese is about learning Chinese culture, not just reading books to understand the language. She started learning about Chinese culture from videos, documentaries and movies in her second semester.

She wore hanfu, the traditional dress of China’s Han ethnic group, to the event. It took her a lot of time to find a suitable style of the unfamiliar garment, and a lot more time practising before she could carry it off.

Some of the audiences noticed similarities between Pakistani and Chinese cultures, including a fondness for tea, a love for vibrant coloured costumes, and welcoming the spring season with joy and celebrations.

“Students take a lot of interest in every Chinese event at the auditorium. The Chinese department is one of the healthiest in the university in terms of the number of students,” Syed Nadir Ali, director general of the school, told Xinhua.

Pakistan and China are close friends, said Ali, explaining that it was good for ordinary people to get a chance to know more about China through its cultural diversity.