Sunday 18 November - Indoor

Nursing students heading to the stadium
in the morning mist

The official speeches

Today was the 10th Anniversary of Quzhou Technical College. It was a huge day in the annual calendar and the biggest event that I’ve seen to date.

I was fortunate enough to be able to sit with the official party (far to the side though) and so I had a good view of the performances – except for a trainee photojournalist who stood in front of us throughout most of the show. 

The stadium during the official speeches

One of the dance performances

Her behaviour contrasted  my days as a photographer at the Australian Museum where we tried to be invisible and unobtrusive as possible at official events.

As I left my seat to take some photos, I was also politely reminded that I'm no longer a photographer, but a teacher in a foreign country. It's impossible to fade into the background here.

Tribute to Florence Nightingale

Part of the display by
Graphic Arts students -
Human & Nature

Anyway, the ceremonies started at 9am, but students were getting in place at 8am.

There was probably between 250-300 students taking part in the main performance.

First were the speeches and presentations, and with such a big event this took the first hour.

Then it was time for the performances, which ranged from what looked like a tribute to Florence Nightingale (there is large number of nursing students in the college), to flamenco dancing and Confucius.

Performance about water

The costumes were spectacular and there was a striking similarity to the annual Schools Spectacular in Sydney.

The Tribute to Confucius (Kong Fuzi)

Of interest was a massive video screen behind the performers which showed different graphics for each of the performances. This was a very elaborate and expensive production.

The entire ensemble of student performers

As the celebrations also included a type of open day, there were also outdoor performances and demonstrations. The details are in the next post.

The official photos are on the college website.

Included below is a short video of a small selection of the outdoor performances.