Nanjing University held a Chinese Traditional Pastry DIY activity in Xianlin Campus Faculty Canteen No.2 on October 14th, 2017, intending to help oversea students learn more about Chinese traditional culture. Several teachers from Office of International Cooperation and Exchanges attended , and made Chinese traditional pastry—mooncakes with over 80 Chinese and oversea students. The event was successfully held, and all the participants had a wonderful time.
Delicacy is an indispensable part of Chinese traditional culture. Compared with many other delicious foods, mooncake has exquisite appearance and rich taste, as well as compacts the profound Chinese charm. With a rhythmic and interesting cartoon about the origin of mooncake, DIY activity officially kicked off.
First of all, teacher Zhao Lei, on behalf of the Office of International Cooperation and Exchanges, expressed greetings to all the participants and told about the special significance of mooncake in China. The Mid-Autumn Festival is the second important traditional festival after the Spring Festival. Mooncakes are symbol of reunion and missing for the people away from home. Zhao also wished all a good experience, and expressed thanks to the organizer—AIC, Nanjing University Association for International Communication.Then, the host Li Jiahui and Guo Shuo from AIC carried out the guessing game of cakes from different countries, and showed the nice legend of Chang E. At last, the mooncake DIY started officially in warm anticipation.
During the process of mooncake DIY, students were enthusiastic and methodical.
Since it is the first-time experience, many mistakes occurred, such as adding too much water or mixing ingredients wrongly. But all the problems are solved one by one with the help of the table mates and the organizer. Students have expressed that they enjoyed the process of helping each other and making contributions to the group. After the dough and stuffing were prepared, everyone made mooncakes with different thickness according to their own understanding. The uniqueness for DIY is that you can explore things you haven't tried before, and put your ideas into practice in the process of making.
With the joint efforts of everyone, a series of delicious mooncakes were baked. The students tasted their own mooncakes and marveled at Chinese people's persistent exploration of food.
At the end of the event, every student received an affectionate postcard with Nanjing University features. Some students say that the postcards will be treasured as an unforgettable memory; some said they would send postcards to their friends to express their yearning.
Through the mooncake DIY, students not only learned the ways of making mooncakes and made new friends, but were attracted by the charm of Chinese traditional culture. They have said that such activities are meaningful, and hope to participate in similar ones in the future.
