San Francisco, March 25, (People’s Daily Online)----Confucius Institute at UC Davis will provide a series of culture feasts with Chinese tea tastings, paper-cutting workshops, tai chi classes and lectures on Chinese customs in the following months.

Julia Ann Easley, a staff member with the UC Davis News Service, said that all of the events are open to the public, and most are free.

The first of the Yin and Yang Lecture Series will focus on this Chinese concept of balance between complementary forces and its relationship to a modern healthy diet. Jianqiao Dong, deputy director of the institute and professor with the School of Foreign Studies at Jiangnan University, will introduce China’s Yin and Yang culture to American audience on March 27 at the Sensory Theater of Robert Mondavi Institute.

The Chinese customs series will feature salon-style discussions of Chinese folk customs, the Chinese family and Chinese community. Topics include how Chinese names are given and their meanings, the customs and taboos of eating, Chinese games, and wedding and marriage customs.

And through the series of tea tastings and lectures, participants will tour the areas where China’s best tea leaves are produced, visit four kinds of tea houses and trace the voyage of tea around the world.

Established in 2013, the institute is the first of hundreds of Confucius Institutes around the world to focus on promoting understanding of Chinese food and beverage culture.