US woman plays major role in promoting Chinese culture

"It's an administrative role, so there's a lot of paperwork that goes on behind the scenes," she says. "Being able to help out backstage logistically is really great when everything flows and goes right."

Myth unveiled

"CICO is the one and only Confucius Institute named for Peking Opera among its counterparts in the US," says CICO director Chen Zuyan. "Our courses are fully integrated into the university's academic system."

All of CICO's courses are offered for college credits. Such courses cover Chinese culture, Peking Opera, Chinese musical instruments and Chinese opera stage combat.

Justina Baez, a biology sophomore who chose the Peking Opera face painting course, says she was "caught off guard" the moment her Monkey King mask painting was complete.

"I was like, 'Oh my God!' My face just transformed. How did that happen?" Baez says with a laugh. "It definitely takes you into another culture and I think that's really cool. Being able to embrace a culture that's not really yours through face painting-I really like it."

The significance of such classes, Feyerabend believes, lies in the fact that "they can fuel passion and also help mutual understanding develop".

CICO also holds outreach events throughout the year at large shopping malls and schools in other states, including Peking Opera shows, interactive workshops and exhibitions.

In a recent exhibition CICO held at a local high school in the state of Montana, where they interacted with a group of theater students, they extended the event from one hour to two.

The feedback of the local students impressed Feyerabend. Some students told her they would share the new skills with their parents.

"So it's a good way to inter-generationally share the culture and a more organic way than just sitting in a classroom."

Resources beyond

Despite her major in Spanish at BU, Feyerabend chose to learn Chinese, because, as she put it, "it was a difficult language" and she wanted to challenge herself.

Standing out for her excellence, CICO picked Feyerabend to participate in Chinese Bridge, or the Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students, three times, from which she obtained two opportunities to study in China.

The second time she participated in it was in the beginner's round in her sophomore year, and she won first place and gained the opportunity to go to China to study Peking Opera at the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts in Beijing for a semester.

"I could feel myself growing both in my speaking and in my stage presence," she says.

Later, she won the senior-level round in the US, then went to compete in Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan province, to finally win a Confucius Institute scholarship, through which she ended up studying at Xiamen University in East China's Fujian province.

According to Feyerabend, learning Chinese culture has not only facilitated her interactions with Chinese people, but also helped her connect with people from all over the world.

"It's definitely an interesting point of conversation, especially with Chinese co-workers and people that I've met," she says.

"I personally try to live by the guideline that you can't judge a book by its cover. You never know what's lying underneath.

"The only way to know is to have conversations with people, get to know their story and get to know their background."