BY JOCELYN ZHOU ’22
Photo by Olivia Brandwein ’22
At 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 13, over an hour before the Mid-Autumn Festival began, the line of students out of the Blanchard Great Room had reached the second floor. The annual event, put on by the Chinese Cultural Association (CCA), included traditional Chinese food and performances.
The Mid-Autumn Festival symbolizes reunion with family and friends. During this celebration, families enjoy mooncakes and other desserts, watch performances and spend quality time with their loved ones.
“This event brings us a sense of home,” said Julia Zhu ’22, a member of CCA. “As international students, we can’t stay home to celebrate the festival, but we can still have people coming here to watch the performance together.”
Meanwhile, American and other non-Chinese students were happy to learn more about the culture by attending and organizing the event.
Anna Prata Reichmann Tavares ’22, a member of the stage crew and a big fan of Chinese culture, shared her excitement. “It’s really cool,” she said. “We have lots of Chinese students in our school. It’s right for them to have a place to celebrate and bring everyone else into this culture and enjoy mooncakes, the music and the dance.”
By 7:30 p.m., Chinese pop music (C-pop) was blasting through the speakers and brightening the mood of the room. Students eagerly flooded in and went to the food tables. The mooncakes — which were bought from a Chinese supermarket — were scattered on a long table on one side of the room. The event organizers arranged other Chinese snacks on the large, round tables near student seating.
Xianan Yao ’21, the co-chair of the Chinese Cultural Association and organizer of the event, said that the preparation process was very long.
“We started to work on this event from summer,” she said. “We also had to contact performers to ask if they would like to perform beforehand. We stayed up late this week to rehearse the performances and to organize everything.”
While a documentary played on stage, showing the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival and other Chinese traditions, more students arrived. The student performances started with “Water Melody,” a song poem performance by the Chinese Music Ensemble, which featured the Chinese traditional form of art in which a poem is performed musically.
The following dances, “Chicken Chic” and “Lose My Mind,” were contemporary but included traditional Chinese elements.
“This year, I [wanted to] take in more modern C-pop elements into the show. Some pop dances are interesting,” Zhu said. “Though we are more modern, we still stick to the core values of the Mid-Autumn Festival. We hope to show more of our culture.”
“Having the mooncakes and the performances is one part that we can share, right?” said Savana Wang ’20, one of the event coordinators of the CCA.
The show ended with a famous Chinese song, “Coward.” The audience sang along with the performers and swayed to the melody. Students laughed and took photos with their friends. The event allowed Chinese students to share their cultural identities and to bring their traditions to other students.