Slovenian students welcome Chinese New Year

LJUBLJANA, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- A show and an exhibition of paintings was staged at a school in Slovenia's capital Ljubljana on Wednesday as young Chinese learners welcome the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, the Year of the Dragon.

The performers of the show are 70 children from the kindergarten and elementary school of Trnovo, a region close to the center of Ljubljana. They are taking classes in the Chinese language at a Confucius Classroom, which has been operating in Trnovo for the past 12 years and is organized by the Confucius Institute of Ljubljana.

In the show presented bilingually in Slovenian and Chinese, the pupils sang Chinese children's songs, including "Good Little Bunny" and "The Little Blue Dragon." The Year of the Dragon follows the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese Zodiac.

In addition to an exhibition of paintings, the children also made two large paper dragons, one in red and the other in green, and played a dragon dance with them. The red paper dragon represents China while the green one is for Ljubljana as there is a green dragon in the emblem of the capital city.

"Our school is very open to international projects," Dulijana Juricic, headmaster of the Trnovo school, told Xinhua after the show.

She said the Confucius Classroom offers many benefits to pupils, helping them get to know the language and history of other cultures "so that they learn how to live in coexistence with others."

According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the Year of the Dragon starts when the Spring Festival falls on Feb. 10 this year.