Warwickshire News Mine

Yao culture comes to Warwickshire
In a first for Warwickshire and the UK, a delegation of twenty performers from Ruyuan Yao, a county of Guangdong Province, China, took to the stage in North Warwickshire on Thursday (23 September) and in Stratford on Friday (24 September) to perform a traditional festival of music, dance and costume rapt audiences.

The evening presentations of Yao culture at North Warwickshire and Hinckley College and Stratford College followed a series of primary school workshops held earlier that day at the respective colleges. At the sessions, participating youngsters from local schools had the chance to work with the performers and learn some of their traditional art and crafts.

Performers led the activities in song, dance, paper folding and stick skipping with support from college students and teaching staff. The sessions gave the young people first-hand experience of a different culture and it was the perfect way to start the exchange with visiting Ruyuan teachers.

In 2008, the county council identified a number of schools in Ruyuan Yao and facilitated links with some of the county’s schools. Since then the schools have been communicating with one another and developing innovative ways to support language and cultural learning through comparing and contrasting the two countries and their ways of life. This official link has been generously funded through the Chinese Government, HSBC bank and the British Council.

Eight Warwickshire primary and five secondary schools have been involved in this part of the exchange which has been funded entirely by the Chinese Government. A reciprocal performance has already been arranged for November when 16 secondary age students will visit China and perform Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to an audience of thousands.

Warwickshire County Councillor Heather Timms, portfolio holder for children, young people and families said: “I would encourage our schools to continue to develop links with schools internationally.  In this global economy it is important that our pupils – business people of the future - have the skills and cultural understanding to contribute to this.

“Such international projects deeply enrich the curriculum, offering varied learning opportunities. Pupils’ knowledge and application of communication technologies are improved and Mandarin, the world’s most spoken language, is now being taught in many Warwickshire schools and is a popular Children’s University module.”

Link to WCC