On 18th May 2019, Consul General Fei Mingxing attended the 2019 Annual Meeting and Awarding Ceremony of KwaZulu Natal (KZN) Chinese Education Foundation. More than 100 were present, including Zulu King Goodwill and Queen Mpume, Foundation Chairman Chen Songhua, local Chinese community leaders as well as teachers and students of Shude Chinese School.
Mr. Chen Songhua expressed his gratitude to Chinese Consulate General, Confucius Institute of Durban University of Technology and local Chinese community leaders for their strong support in the past year and reported the annual work focusing on investing in software and hardware, serving the community and carrying out cultural exchanges. The chief financial officer of the Foundation presented the annual financial report. The Foundation also honored outstanding teachers and students of the year.
Consul General Fei thanked the King and Queen for gracing the event with their presence, congratulated the awarded individuals and commended the work by the Foundation over the past year. He said, Chinese teaching is instrumental to the language ability and the traditional culture of the younger local Chinese, and is also of great significance to their personal development in the future. He praised the Foundation for its active role in Chinese language and culture teaching and called on more and more Chinese community leaders and members to play a role in the promotion of Chinese culture for the sake of Chinese community and China-South Africa friendship. He told a story of hardship on earlier Chinese education in Malaysia, hoping that the Foundation would better utilize available resources and endeavor to promote the Chinese education in KZN to a new level.
The King congratulated the Foundation on its achievements, gave a thumbs-up to the local Chinese community for promoting Chinese culture. He said that Chinese language teaching in South Africa would help promote China-South Africa friendship and cooperation and hoped to see more Zulu people learning Chinese.
During the meeting, 17 items donated by the Consulate, the Confucius Institute, Durban Branch of CRRC Corporation Limited, the Great Wall Skills Training Center and other patrons were auctioned for a total of 300,000 rand (about 140,000 yuan) for the Chinese Education Foundation.