Chinese Program Celebrates This Year's Mid-Autumn Festival

Danjie Su

Students are trying mooncakes.

For this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, the Chinese Program celebrated by hosting an event in the World Languages and Digital Humanities Studio on Thursday, Sept. 28. Chinese minors and other students taking Chinese classes, together with the Chinese faculty and the Fulbright Chinese teaching assistants, enjoyed a celebration with Chinese music and poetry, games, tea and mooncakes.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is the second-largest holiday celebrated after the Lunar New Year in Chinese communities. Like the American Thanksgiving, the Mid-Autumn festival is spent getting together and eating with family and friends. Typically, during the festival, people enjoy mooncakes, give each other gifts, and enjoy each other's company. Mooncakes are eaten due to their round shape and similarity to the moon. A full moon in Chinese culture is considered an auspicious symbol that represents family reunion, abundance and romance.

Students appreciated the authentic Chinese tea and mooncakes and enjoyed playing a mid-autumn-themed Kahoot for prizes. Students from the Business Chinese class and the Intermediate Chinese class made presentations to teach peers Mid-Autumn Festival traditions, Chinese poems and music. The poem taught was Quiet Night Thoughts (Jingyesi) by the famous Chinese poet Li Bai (701AD-762AD), and the song was the popular love song "The Moon Represents My Heart" (Yueliang daibiao wo de xin).

The Chinese Program in the Department of World Languages, Literature, and Culture had a successful celebration and brought the Mid-Autumn Festival to the university, providing an authentic cultural experience for students learning the Chinese language/culture.

Article by Jessica Soto, js146@uark.edu; Soto is a senior majoring in international studies and minoring in Chinese. She has been learning Chinese since the fall of 2021 and is currently in CHIN3003 Advanced Chinese class.