Education Team will visit Singapore and conduct a series of public workshops at various venues in late August again. Our tutors will share some stories and delights of Chinese culture with the local children there. Meanwhile, our audience will follow a little pig to seek “The Best Present” revealing different good wishes buried in forest; and then, they will listen to the story of “Little Prince in Treasure Hunting” joining with the little Prince in an adventure of treasure seeking. Last but not least, a series of extended learning activity will further help children unlocking their creativity and discovering their good virtues in life. Stay in touch with us for the latest events!

The following is the information of workshops in Singapore:

August 29: Mother Tongue Language Promotion (Session 1, Session 2)

August 30: Programme Zone in library@chinatown

Acknowledgement: this event is partly supported by the Arts Development Fund of the Home Affairs Bureau, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Through introducing 'How Are You, Forbidden City?' workshop and the book series of 'We All Live in The Forbidden City ', the education team intended to let more children and teenagers in Beijing recognize the Forbidden City.

At this time, the education team visited the International Montessori School Of Beijing and held workshops for grade 3 and 4 students.  Even the students there were in different cultural backgrounds, they all felt so interested in Chinese culture.  They were active and enthusiastic. Some of them who know more about the Forbidden City suddenly became 'little mentors' and told stories to the others. After the activity, the team and the school members also took the chance to exchange ideas about the content and teaching format of the workshop each other.

On the other side, the tutors also held 2 public workshops at Page One Bookstore (China World Mall Branch) and One Way Street Bookstore (Aegean Branch) respectively. Meanwhile, a few students from the Experimental Primary School of RDFZ took up the role of presenters, together with other tutors, conducted a workshop at Page One Bookstore. Indeed, these 'little presenters' have already spent a lot of time on preparation. They kept practicing themselves besides running rehearsals with teachers. In the end, their outstanding performance successfully aroused the attentions from audience. This new attempt was not only providing tutors a unique teaching experience but also displaying a learning result of 'The Forbidden City Children's Programme' to the public.

To share the delights of learning traditional Chinese culture with local audience in Singapore, our tutors have held several workshops with over 100 multi-racial students at the Chinese International School and a group of young readers at the Singapore Press Holdings Limited center respectively.

Drawing on the warm audience reception the learning experience sessions garnered in Hong Kong, Beijing and Guangzhou, our Education Team responded to the gracious invitation of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Tainan City Government with "How Are You, Forbidden City?", a learning experience session tailored to the Taiwanese audience, which made its debut appearances across the Straits at the Eslite Bookstore at the Tainan Municipal Cultural Center and the Tainan Patriotic Women Association. Taking an audience of young Taiwanese learners on a virtual tour of Beijing's Forbidden City, Our Education Team introduced them to the whimsical aspects and modern meanings of the magnificent structure from a variety of perspectives.

After series of learning experience sessions in Beijing, the education team made progress in Guangzhou on 1st July, the international children’s day. One hour’s session held in Fang Suo Commune and Xue Er You bookstore, was also our gift for children in Guangzhou on the special day. Children and parents took an active part, especially in the “Twelve Badge” section, where parents were invited to award kids badges representing different virtue.

Following the success of the two learning experience sessions held at two bookshops, our Education Team again returned to Beijing at the end of March with yet another series of learning experience sessions, this time visiting Xin Wei Lai Bilingual School in the Chaoyang District of the capital, where they read stories and played games with over 40 students, many of whom are children of rural migrant workers. The team also conducted a session at Your Bay Library where they spent a fun-filled, joyous afternoon interacting with over 20 groups of parents and children and sharing their learning experiences after the class.

Our Education Team had a happy chance encounter with the 40-strong delegation of Chiu Sheung School, Hong Kong who were on their study tour to the capital. A proper session was quickly arranged with the former participants of the "The Best Palace" workshops at the Forbidden City on 28 March. Besides designing a workshop and a set of worksheets for the occasion, our Education Team also drew the attention of the students of Chiu Sheng to the many charms and pleasant quirks of the palace and encouraged them to soak up the architectural wonders of the palatial residences. The two parties again met up at the Qianlong Garden, where an extension activity of the "Strolling in the Garden" workshops took place on site.

After holding about 2000 workshops in Hong Kong, tutors of We All Live in The Forbidden City Education Programme went to Beijing, presenting two experience courses to kids in the Poplar Kid's Republic Book Store and One Way Street book store. The content of the experience courses came from The Best Palace and lasted about one hour. Although it was the final exam time for primary school in Beijing, there were still many kids, who were accompanied by parents participated in the course.

Tutors of "We All Live in The Forbidden City" program carried out two workshops in Kelly and Walsh bookstore in Pacific Place. Children accompanied by their parents experienced the course "The Best Palace" in a very delightful atmosphere.

The education team found a way to offer educational activities for after-school care programme in the community, so that more children had the chance to experience lively, multi-faceted educational activities and thus develop greater interest in Chinese culture.

To enable more young people to join the summer outreach programme, the teaching team hosted educational activities in Putonghua for children aged 4 to 12 at Asia Society. In this way, children returning from abroad for summer vacation also had the chance to join.

From July to August 2012, the education team condensed "The Best Palace" education outreach workshop into summer activities at public libraries, but the target was extended from primary students to kindergarten grade three students. The workshops provided more channels for them to learn more about Chinese culture, with a view to trigger greater interest in it. Complemented by the book series, participants were encouraged to read on the topic.

Apart from large-scale community space, we also implemented some educational and promotional activities at Hong Kong Book Centre for parents to learn the Chinese culture in a fun way through our outreach programme and book series. The education team hopes to create a learning experience for both parents and children to interact with each other. We also wish to develop parent-child educational programme in the future.

The education team hopes to encourage children to explore the connection between modern life and Chinese cultural values. As the theme of this year's Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale is "Tri-ciprocal Cities: The Time, The Place, The People", the education team is honoured to be invited to share with young people the relationship between traditional architecture and nature through having them "roam" inside the Forbidden City at the Heritage Discovery Centre. The workshop uses simple model of the palace to create a learning platform for discussing the modern implication of space planning and living.