Foreign students show off talent in local fashion design competition
Thirty-five foreign students studying in China competed in a fashion design competition organized by Shanghai-based Donghua University on Thursday evening.
The Cuori Cup International Student Fashion Design Competition, the first of its kind in China, attracted 61 foreign students from 22 Chinese colleges this year, 35 of whom made it into last night's final.
With the theme of “the silk road connects with the heart,” the competitors presented their designs combining cultural elements featured in countries along the Belt and Road region, such as Vietnam's bamboo hat, the Korean hanbok, and flags on the backs of Peking opera performers.
S.M.Minhus from Bangladesh, who is a PhD student in fashion design at Jiangnan University in Wuxi City of Jiangsu Province, won the gold prize with his design titled “fusion of culture.”
Donghua University masters student Tais Dou Guan Chzhou, from Kazakhstan, was one of the three silver prize winners.
She said she would graduate in June and hopes she can stay in the city for work.
“Shanghai and China give foreign students big opportunities for work and some experience, so I think it’s good to stay here for a couple of years,” she said.
According to the Ministry of Education, about 489,200 foreign students from 204 countries and regions were studying in China last year, nearly 65 percent of whom came from Belt and Road countries.
Donghua began admitting foreign students in 1954 as one of the first Chinese universities to enroll international students.
By the end of 2017, it had 4,800 foreign students from more than 130 countries.