Full Moon over East and West, One Heart between Heaven and Earth

The Mid-Autumn Festival Gala of the Confucius Institute at Newcastle University Concludes with Great Success

The Common Room, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1SE, UK, 10 October 2025 

Under the golden autumn moonlight, the Confucius Institute at Newcastle University (NUCI) hosted a grand Mid-Autumn Festival Gala themed “Full Moon over East and West, One Heart between Heaven and Earth.” The celebration took place at The Common Room, a historic Victorian landmark in the heart of Newcastle, bringing together more than 150 guests — including students from NUCI’s 20 established teaching sites, Chinese programme coordinators from local schools, libraries and cultural institutes, representatives of the local Chinese community, students and staff from Newcastle University, as well as members of the public from Newcastle and neighbouring areas. In an atmosphere of joy and reunion, the evening unfolded as a dialogue between East and West, past and present, offering the audience a poetic and sensory feast of music, dance, poetry, and shared humanity.

A Joyful Prelude: Lantern Riddles and Cultural Fun

The celebration began with a lively Chinese-English lantern-riddle quiz, featuring 36 riddles creatively designed around Chinese and Western culture, festival customs, and linguistic charm. Prizes included panda plush toys, NUCI notebooks, and signature pens. Guests joined in enthusiastically, filling the hall with laughter and excitement. The game not only created a festive mood but also fostered genuine cultural connection — setting the stage for the main performances that followed.

Opening Remarks: Poetry and Reflection

The gala officially opened with Dr. Andrew Law, British Co-Director of NUCI, delivering the welcome address. Quoting the English translation of Li Bai’s “Jade Stairs Resentment《玉阶怨》” — “She lowers the crystal blind and gazes at the autumn moon” — Dr. Law extended his warm festive greetings. He noted that the Mid-Autumn Festival, while rooted in Chinese tradition, represents an emotional resonance that transcends language and geography.

Professor Yuxiao Su, Chinese Co-Director of NUCI, followed with a warm and reflective address drawing on her background in comparative literature and cross-cultural understanding. She explored the poetic and philosophical essence of the Mid-Autumn Festival—its legends, its human emotions, and its universal resonance across civilizations. Professor Su observed that the themes embodied in the festival—love and loss, longing and reunion, mortality and transcendence—are shared by all humanity, from China’s Chang’e to Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Tithonus, and Pandora. Drawing on her own family’s experience of being spread across three continents, she spoke movingly of the festival’s timeless message of connection beneath one moon. Quoting Su Shi’s “Prelude to Water Melody”, she reflected on its profound meditation on the incompleteness of life and the yearning for wholeness through shared moonlight—a vision that, she noted, links East and West in their understanding of humanity and fate. Concluding her remarks, Professor Su reminded the audience that Zhōngqiū Jié is not only a Chinese festival but also a deeply human one, inspiring dialogue between China and the UK, between past and present, and between tradition and modern life.  “We gaze,” she said, “at the same moon that shines over the Great Wall and Hadrian’s Wall, over Egret Bay in Xiamen and the River Tyne in Newcastle—where our Confucius Institute continues to cultivate the bonds between languages, cultures, and peoples.”

Artistic Highlights: Myth, Music, Dance, and Drama

The performances began with a mini-drama “Chang’e Flying to the Moon,” vividly recreating the mythic origin of the festival through five scenes — “Hou Yi Shoots the Suns,” “The Queen Mother’s Elixir,” “Peng Meng’s Theft,” “Chang’e Ascends to the Moon,” and “Mutual Longing Beneath the Moon.” Written and directed by NUCI teachers and performed by four Chinese students from Xiamen University, Beijing Language and Culture University, and Newcastle University, the piece earned rounds of applause for its creativity and emotion.

Associate Professor Li Rensong, from Xiamen University’s Department of Physical Education and currently NUCI’s traditional Chinese sports instructor, followed with graceful demonstrations of Chen-style Tai Chi and Ba Duan Jin (Eight Brocades). His performance, blending strength and softness, drew admiration and became one of the evening’s highlights.

NUCI teacher Ms. Zhu Liujing then joined four British HSK students to present a bilingual recitation of Li Bai’s “Quiet Night Thought.” Their heartfelt delivery captured the essence of homesickness and poetic rhythm. The audience was amazed to learn that the students had studied Chinese for only two semesters — a moving testament to the success of NUCI’s teaching and to the joy of language learning.

Next came a classical duet dance, “Song of Yearning,” performed by NUCI volunteer teachers Chen Yuanyuan and Wu Shangtong from Xiamen University. With elegant movements and delicate expression, they transformed poetic longing into dance, evoking a timeless emotional landscape.

Another CI teacher Chen Shijia then demonstrated tea art through a serene presentation  titled “A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains,” accompanied on the erhu by NU alumnus Dr. Wang Ziyi. Four audience members were invited to taste jasmine tea and share their experiences. One British guest admitted she had never known about the Mid-Autumn Festival before — and now hoped to celebrate it next year.

Following the tea performance, Dr. Wang Ziyi and Ms. Yang Haoyu (University of Manchester) performed the erhu-guzheng duet “A Moonlit Night over the Spring River.” Their delicate dialogue of strings transported the audience into the tranquil, poetic realm of Chinese classical music.

From Durham University, Mr. Chen Yenhao presented the Peking Opera classic “Wu Jia Slope.” His expressive singing and movement portrayed the reunion of Yang Yanhui and Princess Tie Jing, torn between loyalty and love, duty and affection. Through his performance, the audience experienced the depth and beauty of Peking Opera — a harmony of devotion and tenderness under the same moonlight.

Finale and Reflections

The gala reached its graceful finale with a choral rendition of Su Shi’s  “Prelude to Water Melody.” The lines “The moon waxes and wanes, and people experience sorrow and joy, parting and reunion” echoed through the hall, voicing not only the moon’s beauty but the ebb and flow of life itself. The voices of NUCI teacher Li Lanjin and guest singer Luo Jiani rose in harmony as all the female teachers of the Confucius Institute slowly joined them on stage, their voices intertwining in a soft, lingering chorus. Together, they transformed the verse “May we all be blessed with longevity, though far apart, we share the beauty of the moon together” into a radiant blessing. The song, rich in poetic resonance, became a bridge of shared emotion spanning a thousand years.

Professor Nigel Harkness, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University, offered his most genuine and generous support by coming directly to our event venue after a long train journey from a conference in Southampton, making every effort to arrive in time to deliver the closing remarks. In his speech, he highly commended the Confucius Institute for its vital role as both a platform for cultural exchange and a bridge of mutual understanding. He noted that the key message of the Festival and its performances deeply resonated with him, as it encapsulates what our CI strives to achieve at Newcastle University — to connect China and the UK, past and present, tradition and modern life; to celebrate cultures across time; and to renew and strengthen bonds between languages, cultures, peoples, and nations.

Shared Moonlight, Shared Humanity

The gala featured nine performances in total — from dance to music, poetry to opera, Tai Chi to tea art. Guests departed with Mid-Autumn gift bags prepared by NUCI, containing mooncakes, tea, and cultural leaflets. More than a feast for the senses, the celebration became a meeting of minds and hearts.

As its theme “Full Moon over East and West, One Heart between Heaven and Earth” conveys, no matter how different our cultural backgrounds may be, the emotions we feel under the same moon — affection, nostalgia, and connection — are the universal language of humankind. When the final note faded, the moon in every heart continued to shine — illuminating both longing and hope, and the bright future of understanding between China and the West.