The Confucius Institute In Sofia And the Chinese Cultural Centre In Sofia Have Successfully Completed the First ‘Chinese + Traditional Chinese Medicine Course

On May 4th 2025, the Confucius Institute in Sofia and the Chinese Cultural Centre in Sofia have jointly conducted the graduation ceremony of the first session of the ‘Chinese + Traditional Chinese Medicine’ project. Prof. Chen Ying - the Chinese Director of the Confucius Institute in Sofia, Mrs Liu Bei - a representative of the Chinese Cultural Centre in Sofia, the teachers involved in the project, the students from the Traditional Chinese medicine class and local Chinese language and culture enthusiasts - more than 30 people in total, have attended the ceremony.
The programme lasted for five weeks, and the first class of 19 participants have all passed the assessment and have been awarded certificates of completion. The assessment covered both oral communication in Chinese and the theory of the Traditional Chinese medicine. Mrs Zhang Qing - a teacher from the Confucius Institute in Sofia, has examined the students' listening and speaking skills through an oral test containing self-introduction and daily communication questions and answers. The Traditional Chinese medicine lecturer from the Chinese Cultural Centre in Sofia Mr. Anton Agov has assessed the students' mastery of the philosophy of Chinese medicine, the theory of the five elements, the physical conditioning, and the dietary therapy and the healthcare in the form of a written test.
Being the first ‘Chinese + TCM’ cooperation project in Bulgaria jointly launched by the Confucius Institute in Sofia and the Chinese Cultural Centre in Sofia, the course ‘empowers language with culture and decodes culture with language’, by simultaneously integrating the reading and writing of key words from the Traditional Chinese medicine into the Chinese language learning.The hybrid form of teaching has strengthened the students' understanding of the Chinese medicine through the culture of the Chinese characters and has been well received by them. The Confucius Institute in Sofia plans to launch more ‘Chinese +’ programmes to meet the diverse learning needs of the local population.

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

Picture 1. Prof. Chen Ying - the Chinese Director of the Confucius Institute in Sofia, presenting the certificates of completion to the students.

Picture 2. Oral communication demonstration in Chinese

Picture 3. Theoretical examination on Traditional Chinese medicine

Picture 4. A student’s work on Chinese characters

Picture 5. A group photo at the venue