Over 50 University of Nottingham staff, students and local residents attended NCI’s weekly Summer Camp event at the Si Yuan Building, on our premises every Wednesday evening throughout July 2022. This was NCI’s first ever Summer Camp as well as its first in-person event since the pandemic began nearly two and half years ago. Each evening event consisted of a one-hour Mandarin lesson and a one-hour cultural workshop, followed by an optional free-talk session for those who wished to stay a bit longer to practice their Mandarin. For the Mandarin lesson, the participants were separated into four classes to suit their needs ranging from complete beginner, beginner, intermediate to advanced levels. All classes were carefully designed by our NCI teachers and filled with interactive games and fun. After a short break, the attendees went to the NCI Gallery to take part in cultural workshops, which introduced various fascinating aspects of China including places of interest, Chinese musical instruments, calligraphy and board games, Laughter and applause filled the corridors throughout the evenings, bringing the Si Yuan Building back to life after two years of being far too quiet! With several of the participants having taken online lessons with NCI throughout the pandemic it was wonderful to see them meet their teachers in person and finally enjoy the benefits of our superb home at the Si Yuan Building.

Over 100 Mandarin teachers and student teachers from across the globe registered to attend NCI Local Teacher Training on 10 July, 2022, with 32 of them attending in person at the Si Yuan Building, home to NCI on the University’s Jubilee Campus. The morning sessions consisted of two talks, The first one was delivered online by Dr. Modesto Corderi Novoa, a Mandarin teacher and researcher from Spain. Dr Corderi’s research focuses on the use of Performative Language Teaching (PLT) pedagogy in the Chinese classroom and is one of the world's leading researchers and experts in this field. Drawing upon years of research and teaching experience, Dr Corderi brought PLT to life with specific examples on how to use a wide range of performative games and strategies to help students learn Mandarin in a relaxed and fun environment as well as foster their ability to interact. This was followed by a presentation delivered in-person by Ms Xiaoming Zhu, Deputy Director of the Confucius Institute at University College London (UCL), who is also an experienced PGCE tutor at UCL. In her lecture titled “Using interactive classroom activities to engage your learners”, Xiaoming discussed and demonstrated how to engage students with interactive tasks focusing on improving language skills in all areas, i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing. Whilst the online training ended at 12:00 noon, the in-person aspect of the event continued into the afternoon at the Si Yuan Building after a lunch brea

NCI encourages and supports research relating to various aspects of China. NCI has commissioned and supported over 300 seminars and conferences over the past 15 years, with topics covering China’s economic growth, political reform, ethnic minority policies, civil society development, international relations, energy security, rural sustainable development, labour relations and migration, social media, soft power and more. It does so by drawing upon resources from various China-interested groups, centres and academic schools of the University of Nottingham and its partner, Fudan University. Providing a platform for China scholars from across the globe to discuss China issues and exchange ideas has helped create an excellent research environment and has greatly enhanced Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham. The scale of these events varies, ranging from regular China seminars with an attendance of 30-40 Nottingham staff and students to large-scale annual international conferences with 200 + China scholars from up to 20 countries worldwide. Many leading figures in Contemporary Chinese Studies from China, Southeast Asia, USA and Europe have been invited to give speech at our conferences and seminars, including Professor Justin Yifu Lin and Professor ZHANG Weiying from Peking University, Professor Barry Naughton from University of California, San Diego, Professor Peter Nolan, from University of Cambridge and Professor ZHANG Jun from Fudan University.

In celebration of the Chinese New Year of the Tiger, Nottingham Confucius Institute was proud to present a specially commissioned digital projection show on the evenings of 29 -31 January in partnership with Lakeside Arts and Nottingham City Council. Designed by local artist Barret Hodgson, the stunning 20 minute digital display illuminated the south face of the University's iconic Trent Building with a visual feast of contemporary and traditional Chinese art and culture. The shows were attended by over 3,000 University staff, students and local residents, including Nottingham City Lord Mayor Councillor David Trimble, former UoN Vice Chancellor and President Professor Sir David Greenaway and Lady Susan Greenaway. The digital display was very well received with round of applause at the end of each show. Many of the audience also shared pictures and video clips on social media with warm praise: “It was absolutely remarkable!” wrote one resident. “The effects were simply amazing, not just the images and the contrastive lighting but also all the transitions and the way the imagery interacted with the architecture”. “I’ve never seen anything this spectacular outside London!” said one. “WOW!” wrote another.