On April 27, the 5th “Discover China” Lecture for HUST International Students was held in  C202 of D9 Building. Dozens of international students attended the lecture under the topic of Chinese View on Marriage.

Ms. Luo Panyu, the lecturer from School of International Education, led in topic at the beginning of the lecture by showing the oracle bone character of “Hun” (meaning Marriage) Then exploring into the connotation of marriage, she explained the purpose and modes of marriage, the standard of selecting the spouse, and the relationship between Chinese couples in marriage. Ms. Luo also took her own experience of marriage as example to better explain the huge influences from Chinese parents on the married couples, which might be the most difficult part for the audience to understand.

The International Students immersed in the lecture, and some sank in thoughts while some made notes. When it came to the part of Q&A, plenty of questions sprang up: “Why don’t some Chinese wear their marriage rings?” ”Why is the ‘leftover girls’ a serious problem since there are more men than women in China?” ”How many guests do Chinese invite to their wedding ceremony on average? Do the guests have to give some money to the newly-weds?” “Why the divorce rate is higher in modern marriage than that of ancient marriage while modern people have more freedom in finding love?” Those questions fueled up into a heated discussion which lengthened the lecture from 90-minute to 150-minute.

"It was a very meaningful experience to have a lecture like this, I have learned a lot about Chinese view of marriage, which I can hardly know from the books. I’m looking forward to attending more interesting lectures like this.”, said Alexander from Russia.

It’s known that Discover China Lectures for HUST International Students is sponsored and organized by the School of International Education.Held every month, it will invite experts and specialists to introduce China  at economic, political and cultural levels， aiming at opening a window for international students at HUST to know China from different aspects.

                                                      “发现中国讲座”带国际学生了解中国人的婚姻观

4月27日下午，华中科技大学国际学生人文讲座第五期开讲，主题是”中国的婚姻观”，吸引了几十名国际学生参加。

本次的主讲嘉宾是来自国际教育学院的骆攀玉老师，她首先向国际学生们解释了“婚”字的古汉字形体，进而引出讲座主题；接着，在“传统与现代的对比”的思路下，她为听众们分析了古今婚姻的目的、模式、择偶标准、夫妻关系等问题，并详尽阐述了中国婚姻中包含的文化因素。不仅如此，骆老师还以自己的婚姻经历为例，深入浅出，对国际学生最陌生、最感兴趣的部分进行了重点讲解，国际学生们也从中了解到中国父母对子女婚姻的巨大影响力。

在座的国际学生听得十分专注，时而频频点头，时而皱眉思考，有的还快速地记下笔记。在讲座的提问环节，国际学生们踊跃提问，比如：“中国人为何没有佩戴婚戒的习惯？”；“中国的男性人数多于女性，为何‘剩女’却成为社会问题？”；“婚礼的宴客规模和礼金习惯是怎样的？”；“为什么传统的包办婚姻非常稳定，而现代的自由恋爱婚姻反而离婚率激增呢？”这些深刻而现实的问题等引起了大家的热烈讨论，原定一个半小时的讲座，在不知不觉中持续了近两个半小时。

“我觉得这次讲座很有意义，我了解到中国古今的婚姻观念，这是我在书本上很难学到的知识，希望以后我能继续参加这样充满知识和趣味的讲座。”来自俄罗斯的Alexander感叹道。

据悉，每月一次的国际学生人文讲座是由国际教育学院推出的校园文化活动品牌，主讲嘉宾主要是中国文化和国情等相关的专家和学者，旨在为国际学生打开一个多方位了解中国的“窗口”。