In 1985, the National People’s Congress of China officiated the 10th of September as the official Teachers’ Day to be celebrated annually.
On 08th September 2023, the Chinese Consul-General, HE Mr You Wenze, hosted the annual Teachers’ Day celebratory event in Cape Town. This is a Day to commemorate the work and contribution made by teachers in the education sector. On the day, Chinese teachers and students were bestowed with awards.
The Rhodes University Deputy Dean of the Humanities Faculty and Director of the CIRU, Professor Patrice Mwepu, shared that he has worked in different countries in Africa and has only been invited to a Chinese Teachers’ Day, “which means that other countries do not have that day to celebrate their own teachers,” he said. “That is why, as a teacher, I am happy every time I am invited to take part in this event, I take that at heart”.
The Head of the Chinese Section and CIRU Chinese Director, Professor Dexue Liu expressed that “this celebratory event is important as everyone get together to celebrate and honour the work done by teachers and those that have done well in Chinese studies”. Extending his heartfelt gratitude to getting the opportunity to celebrate Chinese Teachers’ Day in another country, Prof Liu said: “I feel happy about this day where we come together to celebrate, it feels like we are a family, and this promotes unity as we come from different countries.”
Having attended the Chinese Teacher’s Day celebratory event for the first time, the Head of Pharmacology Division, Professor Mamza Mothibe, shared her experience and sentiments regarding the event. Professor Mothibe expressed that, “this was my first time attending the event and I was quite pleasantly impressed; in my head I am like this is something we should also be celebrating”. Highly impressed with the idea of celebrating teachers, she believes that this is a brilliant event to host. “This is one thing to boost the morale of our teachers,” she said.
Professor Mothibe’s research is on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), traditional medicines, healer/healing, and regulatory issues among others. Attending this event presented an opportunity for collaboration for her, the institution, and the Faculty of Pharmacy. “I went to the event because we are looking at potential collaboration in terms of the research I am conducting regarding traditional medicine. We could possibly collaborate with researchers in the field of Chinese medicine,” she said.
“Chinese are advanced, I am aiming to learn from their traditional medicine system so that we can apply to our own system to fast track change and make sure that we move fast enough with our issues regarding African traditional medicine and regulation,” Professor Mothibe added.
The Teachers’ Day celebration was marked with speeches, songs and dance, as well as Chinese meals offered to the guests.