Accompanied by the strident strains of the jinghu, a small two-stringed bowed instrument, several performers, all in glamorous costumes, sang "The Face Paint Song" (Chang Lianpu), a Peking Opera aria composed in recent years. 

Neither Peking Opera professionals nor Chinese, they are foreign students from the Beijing Institute of Economic Management, a newly established school specializing in teaching foreigners Chinese. They were performing at the Capital Foreign Students' New Year Party.

Led by Song Jeong-ho, a South Korean student, the 30 performers from eight countries felt they had really become stars when they heard the applause from the audience.

"A Japanese student told me that after he goes back to his home country, he will definitely remember the days of singing Peking Opera when he is lying on his bed," recalled Wang Jing, a teacher from the institute.

Wang never expected foreign students performing one of China's signature arts could have been such a success.

"One can hardly believe that some of them could not read the lines correctly just one and a half months ago," she said.

At first, students from the preliminary class of the institute joined the Peking Opera troupe only because they had been told their language skills would be greatly improved in the process. However, after several rehearsals, they found that they were greatly attracted to the art.

Peking Opera is helping the students get to know each other.

"During the rehearsals, the students from different countries became much closer than they had ever been before," Wang said. "If any students were absent from rehearsal, someone would voluntarily give them a call."

In the rehearsals, communication among the students plays an important role because some students still have problems understanding Chinese and expressing their own ideas in the language.

Lucky students

Song and his classmates are luckier than many other students of Chinese, because they have had a chance to experience authentic Peking Opera.

"The elaborate costumes and the facial makeup are all professional," said Wang Jing, who herself is a Peking Opera lover.

The teachers also invited some Peking Opera singers to give demonstrations for the students. The students were quite excited when they started learning some of the subtleties of the art form.

"I have developed a particular liking for the types of facial makeup in Peking Opera," said Mac Dang-khoi, a Vietnamese student, who knew practically nothing about Peking opera before he came to China.

Last September, he had a chance to accompany his sister to the Lao-she Teahouse at Qianmen to see a live performance of Peking Opera.

Sitting very close to the stage, he watched it carefully for the first time and surprisingly found that he seemed to be able to understand something of the actors' performances.

Though he did not know what the actors were singing and talking about, he could guess the general meaning from their movements and facial expressions.

"The facial makeup is really artistic. Different types of facial makeup reflect the characters' social status and personalities," he said.

New experience

Many foreign students in the universities in China nowadays are able to touch the essence of traditional Chinese culture, not just Peking Opera.

Strolling the old lanes of downtown Beijing is also an indispensable part of foreign students' study of Chinese culture.

Walking the narrow hutong lanes between rows of houses, they shoot photos of children at play. Bicycle riders in the lanes often cry to them, "Make way! Make way." The students quickly catch on and stick to one side of the lane to let cyclists pass.

"As long as it is possible, I will take my students to the places where they can experience Chinese culture first hand," said Zhang Jingjing, a teacher from the institute.

Song Jeong-ho's classmates, from France, South Korea, Viet Nam and Indonesia, are the most active ones in the institute. In addition to taking part in the Peking Opera program, the class also enters Chinese speaking competitions every school term.

No matter how long or short, jerky or smooth, their speeches reveal the true picture of their level of understanding of the Chinese language and traditional Chinese culture, and convey their cross-cultural ideas and feelings in China.

"Giving a speech was one of the most unforgettable moments of my life, for it was the first time for me to give a public speech," Song said.

For foreign students, numbering about 20,000 in Beijing, getting involved in a culture completely different from their own is by no means an easy process, especially in the beginning.

According to Yu Shucheng, the teacher who has been in charge of foreign students affairs in Beijing Language and Cultural University for decades, foreign students go through several stages after they come to China.

In the beginning, they feel that everything in the country, from the friendly people to the marvelous cultural scenic spots, is fresh and exciting to them. It generally lasts one to two months.

Quickly, winter comes and their original passion may also cool down. Happiness is gradually dispelled by the difficulty of language learning, homesickness, missed friends, and communication barriers off campus. Such emotions continue to accumulate, reaching their peak in "dark March."

"Most of them make it successfully through that hard period and greet the sunny days that follow," said Yu.

"At first, I really felt lonely and missed my family," said Mo Oon-yunhee, a South Korean student from the Beijing Institute of Economic Management.

Meeting new friends, not only from her own country, but also from China and Japan and European countries as well, helped her quickly relieve her worries about her studies, life's petty, everyday problems, and the future.

"The company of friends may be the best remedy for loneliness for foreign students," said Mo.

Students of similar cultural background from neighboring countries such as South Korea and Japan, make up the majority of foreign students in most universities nowadays.

In the past decade, the Chinese economy has been growing steadily and the economic ties between South Korea and China have been growing stronger and stronger.

Mo hopes that eventually she will find a Chinese-related job after she goes back home, "preferably something better than being a tour guide."

"Now in my country, learning Chinese is quite popular. But only when I am in China do I find that it is interesting. Especially spoken Chinese; the more I learn, the more I want to learn," she said.

(China Daily January 15, 2004)