Penn Charter and GFS Host Cultural Exchange with China

Upper School students at Penn Charter and Germantown Friends School will host members of the Beijing Huiwen School Choir from Beijing, China, Feb. 7-10.

The Chinese choir is touring the United States, and the visit to Philadelphia will include a free, public concert with the GFS choir at 8:00 p.m. on Feb. 10. The concert, featuring popular Chinese folksongs and some Western songs, will be held in the Loeb Performing Arts Center at Greene Street and School House Lane on the GFS campus.

The forty-one member Beijing Huiwen School Choir will arrive in Philadelphia on Feb. 7 and, as part of their cultural exchange, students will spend four days with local families. On Thursday, the Chinese students will attend classes with their Penn Charter or GFS hosts. At Penn Charter, the Thursday visit coincides with Friends/Multicultural Day, an upper school celebration of the Quaker values of diversity.

The local connection with Beijing Huiwen School began two years ago, when the Germantown Friends School Choir visited China and performed at the school.

The Beijing Huiwen School is one of the leading schools in Beijing and its choir has performed in several international competitions.