The Chinese Whispers™️ Project

The Chinese Whispers™️ is the Confucius Institute’s award-winning project (Higher Education Academy – Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence 2016).

Two Project Agenda

The agenda of the project is two folds: first, it is about interculturalism, that is developing awareness, competence and citizenship in the local community to facilitate respectful interaction between people from different cultural backgrounds.

Second, it is about creativity, that is promoting the learning of language and culture through creative practice, specifically singing.

Three Research Strands

The project involves three strands of research: educational, psychological, and creative. The educational strand involves designing and delivering a new resource for enabling Mandarin language learning in the project.

The psychological strand investigate people's social, emotional and educational experiences of learning Mandarin language and culture through singing.

The creative strand explores cultural translation and fusion via original compositions.

The Chinese Whispers Concerts

The Chinese Whispers Concert is an annual event held by the Confucius Institute and the Music Department at the University of Hull. This concert aims to bring together schoolchildren and community choirs at Middleton Hall every year. The concert showcases the results of the innovative work in teaching Chinese language through singing in choirs.

It is a wonderful opportunity for the communities to come together and enjoy the beautiful music activities. The concert not only highlights the talent of the artists but also serves as a platform for the audience to experience the beauty of the Chinese language and culture through music. It is an event that brings joy and promotes understanding among people of different backgrounds.

Gallery

Check the highlights of the concerts from 2018-2024!

Concerts videos

Enjoy some videos from the concerts!

Nafferton Primary School
Year 4 children
singing "Fireflies Fly"(虫儿飞)
Christopher Pickering Primary School
Year 3 children
singing "Chinese Characters Song"(笔画歌)
Confucius Institute teacher
Modern Chinese Dancing
"Blossom All the Way" (一路生花)
2023
Howden School
Chinese Singing Club (age 11-16)
Singing "Lotus Melody" (采莲曲)
2023
Chinese language tutor Runyi
Dancing Performance
"Worship the Elephent King" (象王行)
2024
Hull Male Voice Choir
Singing English Song
"Is thi the way to Amarilo"
2023
Jiang Aiwa & Stanislava Svagorina
Piano solo and Singing performance
"Chasing the Moon" (彩云追月)
"Looking Towards the Moon" (望月)
2022
University of Hull Chapel Choir
Singing traditional Chinese Song
"Visit the in-law"(回娘家)
2018