June 15th, 2011, “Travelling Trunk” donation ceremony was held in the Mason Hall of George Mason University. Peter Noonan, the Assistant Superindent of Fairfax County Public Schools, Paula Patrick, Coordinator of World Languages of Fairfax County Public Schools and Alice L. Reilly, Coordinator of PreK-12 Social Studies from Instructional Services Department of Fairfax County Public Schools were invited to this ceremony. The vice president of George Mason University Dr. Joy Hughes On behalf of the Confucius Institute at George Mason donated three sets of “Travelling Trunk” to Fairfax County Public Schools.

General Council and directors of Confucius Institute at George Mason University and the directors of the Fairfax public schools

“Travelling Trunk” is one of the most important projects of Confucius Institute at George Mason in 2011. The ideas is created by Dr. Joy Hughes after her deep talk with Fairfax County Public Schools in 2010 on how Confucius Institute could help on community education on Chinese correlative subjects.

“Travelling Trunk” is a set of Chinese artifact in a travelling trunk to help the social study teachers teaching students on the subjects of Chinese history, geography and culture. All of the items within the trunk were purchased or donated from China and can provide insight into the ancient culture that they represent. The artifacts in the trunk include abacus, bamboo book, Beijing opera mask, bronze vessel, ethnic minority doll, New Year couplets, paper cuts, Chinese yoyo and other Chinese culture correlative items. An additional teaching materials package, a ring-bound set of cards and a booklet of teacher’s guide are also within the trunk.

“travelling trunk” exhibition

The FrontPage of teachers’ guide of the “travelling trunk”

Another project ongoing with the same target from the Confucius Institute at George Mason University is the “Digital Library”. “Digital Library” is an online digital resource center for social study and other Chinese culture learners. A more comprehensive of Chinese culture will display through pictures, text, video and other multimedia tools.

Confucius Institute at George Mason was established in 2009. Since its founding, help the community education on Chinese language and culture learning became the most important goal of its developing. With the cooperation of Fairfax County Public Schools, Confucius Institute at George Mason will provide more support and opportunities on Chinese language and culture learning.