Confucius Institute in Frankfurt brings event week online

Experience China, a popular week-long holiday program organized by the Confucius Institute in Frankfurt took place online for the first time starting Monday.

Designed for German children who are interested in the Chinese language and culture, this year's program has been streamlined to adapt to children's online attention span and media consumption habits. It has fewer elements of dancing and martial arts, but instead features real-time video chat with Chinese youth in China, according to the institute.

In late March, the Confucius Institute in Frankfurt gradually moved its classes online amid coronavirus concerns. It also launched various online extracurricular activities, such as reading club and Tai Chi lessons, and successfully organized an online theater workshop in June between several culture centers in Europe and China.

"The feedback to our online classes has been very good so far. We had no complaints about the sudden switch to online -- everybody understood that this was force majeure," Christina Werum-Wang, executive director of the Confucius Institute in Frankfurt, told Xinhua.

"Even more, most people were very happy that we did not stop classes, and they are grateful that the transition went so smoothly," Werum-Wang added.

Jin Ri, who is also executive director of the institute, said that the online courses have led to some "surprising discoveries". The schedule worked especially well for busy office workers and people living outside of commuting distances to Frankfurt, Jin pointed out.

"We are thinking about keeping some online activities in the future, so that we can attract both a local audience and those living afar," Jin said.

Over the past months, the instructors at the institute have been constantly improving the content and format of the online courses, and social media is playing an increasingly bigger role in promoting the activities, according to Jin.