In early June, SJTU Global Affairs Office and USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry (ICCI) successfully co-organized the 2018 SJTU Foreign Faculty Culture Enrichment Event – Dragon Boat Festival Exploration for full-time foreign faculty. Foreign experts and their family members from more than ten colleges and schools participated in the event. As a special occasion to explore the culture implication of Chinese Dragon Boat Festival and strengthen friendship, the event was much welcome and spoken highly of by the participants.

With SJTU’s increased level of internationalization in recent years, the number of full-time foreign faculty in SJTU is growing year by year. To help them better understand and identify with the Chinese culture, the event featured the appreciation of the natural beauty and exploration of the Chinese traditional festival-Duanwu Jie, which provided them with unique experiences of practicing Chinese traditions at this festival in the most idyllic place of Shanghai.

In the morning, the foreign faculty arrived at the Chongming Island, which is the 3rd largest island in China that located at the mouth of the Yangtze River. It is home to a number of environmental protection sites and renowned for its beautiful natural scenery and idyllic country lifestyle. The foreign faculty was much impressed by the natural beauty of the environment at the Chongming Island.

In order to make better acquaintances with each other and enhance friendship, an icebreaking activity was organized, during which the foreign faculty was divided into three teams and demonstrated good rapport and cooperation in a variety of the team challenges.

After the icebreaking, the foreign faculty learned how to make Zongzi and Baozi from local masters. They were amazed at the master’s agility of manual skills and the ingenuity of the Chinese traditional custom. Had seen the master’s demonstration, the foreign faculty practiced making Zongzi and Baozi with their own hands.

To further improve the accuracy in their knowledge of this Chinese traditional festival, a cultural quiz for Duanwu Jie was designed to test foreign faculty’s initial knowledge of the Duanwu Jie and its cultural legends. The ones who passed the test successfully were given the gift of perfume satchels to wear around the neck which was another important tradition to celebrate the festival.

Chinese traditional festivals have thousand-year histories with rich cultural meanings, which are significant forms of representing Chinese traditional culture and have long been an indispensable part of our daily life. The cultural enrichment event offered the foreign faculty a superb chance to learn about the origins, cultural connotation, wonderful legends and traditional customs of Chinese traditional festival, Duanwu Jie, and actually live it!

Following previous activities such as 2016 Shanghai Local Cultural Exploration Event and 2017 Han Culture Tour, this year’s Dragon Boat Festival Exploration is a further step of SJTU Foreign Faculty Culture Enrichment Event Series, co-organized by SJTU Global Affairs Office and ICCI. The event has built tighter connections among foreign faculty, enhanced their understanding of Chinese traditional culture and significantly enriched their life experience in China.