The Confucius Classroom At the Maxim Gorki Secondary School Under the Confucius Institute In Sofia Have Organized A Spring Festival For the Year Of the Snake

  On 18th February 2025, the Confucius Classroom At the Maxim Gorky Secondary School under the Confucius Institute in Sofia, have hosted their Spring Festival for the Year of the Snake 2025 at the Municipal Cultural Centre in the city of Stara Zagora. Mr Yang Tian – the Head of the Department For Education at the Chinese Embassy in Bulgaria, Mr Metody Markov - the Governor of the Stara Zagora region, Mrs Mariana Pencheva – the Headmistress of the Maxim Gorky Secondary School, Mrs Aksiniya Koleva - the Bulgarian director of the Confucius Institute in Sofia, Prof. Chen Ying - the Chinese Director of the CIS, as well as many teachers and students of the school, together with their parents, and representatives of all walks of life - more than 500 people, have attended the festival.
In his speech, Mr Yang Tian has said that the Confucius Institute in Sofia and the Maxim Gorky Secondary School in Sofia have made promising achievements in the Chinese language teaching and the cultural exchanges in recent years. He has encouraged more students to learn Chinese and to promote the humanistic exchanges and the cooperation between China and Bulgaria. Mrs Mariana Pentcheva has expressed her gratitude to the Confucius Institute in Sofia for their strong support. Moreover, she has also revealed her hope that the two sides could continue to deepen their collaboration and could jointly promote the development of the Chinese language education in Bulgaria.
The event consisted of two parts: a Spring Festival celebration and a cultural experience. Teachers and students from the Confucius Classroom have presented a wonderful cultural performance. The evening started with a dragon dance followed by traditional dances, Chinese and Bulgarian folk songs, Huangmei opera performance, a Chinese zodiac stage play, a swordplay performance, etc. Classical poems such as ‘Like a dream’ and ‘Song of divination’ have been incorporated into the performance, which has demonstrated the richness of the Chinese traditional culture.
For the cultural experience activities, the teachers and students from the school have set up Chinese cultural booths, including a calligraphy one, a face painting one, a Chinese zodiac one, a tea ceremony one, etc. which booths have attracted many people to stop by and to participate in the cultural activities.
Since becoming a Confucius classroom under the Confucius Institute in Sofia, the Maxim Gorky Secondary School in Stara Zagora have offered quality Chinese language courses and have organised colourful cultural activities, helping more and more Bulgarian teenagers from the region to learn Chinese and to understand China.

The Confucius Institute in Sofia
Text: Peng Yuyan
Photos: Peng Yuyan
Editors: Prof. Chen Ying, Aksiniya Koleva, Chen Chen
English translation: Maya Kostadinova

Picture 1. Mr Yang Tian – the Head of the Department for Education at the Chinese Embassy in Bulgaria, delivering his speech.

Picture 2. Mrs Mariana Pentcheva – the Headmistress of the Maxim Gorky Secondary School in Stara Zagora, delivering her speech.

Picture 3. A dragon ribbon flinging performance.

Picture 4.: The Thousand Hands Of Guan Yin dance.

Figure 5: Scene of cultural experience activities.

Picture 6. A group photo of the Directors of the Confucius Institute in Sofia and the headmistress of the Maxim Gorky Secondary School in Stara Zagora.

Figure 7: A group photo of the guests and the performers.