As the Mid-Autumn Festival was coming, the School of Foreign Languages of Jiangsu Open University, together with the Foreign Affairs Office of Qixia District and the School of International Education of Nanjing Vocational University of Industry Technology, organized a special celebration for 62 international students.
The first stop of the activity came to Nanjing Jinling Folding Fan Research Institute. Jinling Folding Fan originated in the 5th Century and prevailed in the Ming Dynasty. It is an intangible cultural heritage of Jiangsu Province and one of the “Four Great Fans” in China. With the help of translators Liu Yangxin and Guo Xuan from the School, international students listened carefully to the introduction of Jinling Folding Fan by Ni Shijin, Director of the Institute, observed the live demonstration of the process of shaping and polishing, and appreciated all kinds of finely crafted finished products. Director Ni said that today, Jinling Folding Fan keeps the hand-made and hand-painted tradition, which has extremely high craft and artistic value.
At Nanjing Vocational University of Industry Technology, Tang Weijian from the School brought a well-prepared class on culture and customs to foreign students. She introduced the origin, legends and customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival, led the students to read ancient poems about the moon and explain the beautiful legend of the Goddess Chang'e. The School also invited Wen Shuang from the School of Arts to teach foreign students how to create hand-painted folding fans. Afterwards, the students were divided into groups joined by teachers from the School, and pour their love for the earth, longing for nature, missing their loved ones and all kinds of good wishes into their works. The atmosphere was warm, and pieces of ingenious works were created. In the laughter, everyone enjoyed the delicious moon cakes together.
In this unique cultural feast, foreign students made new friends and experienced the profoundness and long history of Chinese culture. The School of Foreign Languages will continue to make use of the specialty of Chinese international education, strive to promote cultural confidence, attracted more friends at home and abroad to Chinese culture, and contribute more to spreading excellent traditional Chinese culture and telling China’s stories well.
