On 20 February 2026, during the Chinese New Year season, the Confucius Institute at Stellenbosch University, led by government-sponsored teacher Zuo Liugang and volunteers Wang Xiyue, He Zhiyuan, and Yan Yufei, visited the Rietenbosch Confucius Classroom to host a special Spring Festival cultural event for more than 30 teachers and students. Through presentations on traditional customs such as couplets, Chinese knots, paper-cuttings, and the giving of “lucky money,” the team introduced the origins and practices of the Chinese New Year, while students wrote down their wishes—including hopes for health, academic success, and traveling to China—on red slips of paper. In the highlight of the event, a drone operated by the volunteers carried the children’s New Year wishes into the sky, symbolically “flying” their dreams toward China and creating an unforgettable moment. The activity, combining traditional cultural instruction with innovative technology, was organized in response to the 2026 China–Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges and aimed to deepen students’ understanding of Chinese culture, inspire their enthusiasm for learning Chinese, and further strengthen educational and cultural ties between China and South Africa.