ESU Hosts Chinese Tradition: Mid-Autumn Festival

Posted by: admin on October 23, 2015, No Comments

Over 100 people celebrated a Chinese tradition last month at East Stroudsburg University. “Of my 23 years of teaching at ESU, this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival was the biggest and greatest,” Niandong Shi, Ph.D., retired Professor of Mathematics, said.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, called Zhong Qiu Jie, has long been a tradition in China, beginning in the Shang Dynasty, and is the second most famous festival after the Spring Festival. The Mid-Autumn Fest is also known as the “Day of the Moon” because it is celebrated on the day the Harvest moon is fullest and brightest.

East Stroudsburg University’s Chinese Club brought this tradition to the Keystone Room, where students, faculty and alumni gathered around 12 circular tables to share a special Chinese dinner and moon cake.

The night’s events began with a speech from Dongsheng Che, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science and the adviser of the Chinese Club.

Gou Zhao Yuan, a digital media technologies graduate student from China, presented the history and background of the festival giving insight to students unfamiliar with the traditions. Jane Chao Yu, instructor in Modern Languages, brought her Chinese II class to the spotlight, first reciting and then singing the famous Chinese poem “Shuidiao Getou” by poet Sushi in Song Dynasty.

Between each performance, host Zhengqi Hu, a graduate student from China and president of the Chinese Club, and hostess Bobbi Sherman, a senior majoring in psychology from New York who is also vice president of the Chinese Club, held the audience’s attention and stole a few laughs. Hu also showed traditional calligraphy to the group.

After encouraging the crowd to move out of their seats and surround his table, Hu explained that calligraphy is a silent art. Upon finishing, he stamped the parchment, traditionally called xuanzhi, three times with ink from a stone: two stamps for good fortune and one stamp with his name. He then asked the crowd if anyone could read the unique characters he had scribed, and was impressed when Dr. Shi read nearly the entire poem aloud.

Hu put the entire celebration together. He was responsible for many preparations behind-the-scenes, including making arrangements for food, reserving the room, coordinating the event’s presenters, hanging publicity posters and personally buying the authentic moon cake from Chinatown in Philadelphia.

A graduate student with a bachelor’s degree in political science from Shenyang Normal University, China, Hu is in his second year of the professional and secondary education graduate program at ESU. His goal is to become a Mandarin Chinese teacher in the United States.

He currently tutors ESU students taking Chinese language classes. Last semester, he also enjoyed running the Chinese Corner every Thursday night. This program put on by the Chinese Club taught Chinese culture and differences to students who have never traveled abroad.

The Chinese Club aims to introduce ESU students to Chinese exchange students in order to promote a cultural awareness and establish a connection across the diverse campus. The club welcomes any student, regardless of major, and no prior knowledge of Chinese language is necessary.