Guilford’s Mid-Autumn Festival turns curiosity into community

There was tea to sip, mooncake to nibble and rice paper to draw on.

There were fans and bookmarks to make, a shuttlecock to kick back and forth, and, from somewhere inside Founders Hall, the unmistakable sound of an erhu — a traditional Chinese two-stringed instrument.

And there were people everywhere, sitting, talking, laughing and, in some cases, meeting one another for the first time.

Last week’s Mid-Autumn Festival at Guilford College brought students, faculty, families and neighbors together for an afternoon organized by Meiqing “Mei” Sun, a lecturer in Chinese Communications. For Mei, it was a chance to celebrate one of China’s most beloved traditions and to invite others into it.

Come curious, she seemed to be saying. Sit down. Try something new. Ask somebody a question. “Curiosity is very important for all of us,” Mei says. “Just be curious.”

Students sampled Chinese tea and mooncake, a pastry associated with the festival. They tried Chinese calligraphy, made fans and bookmarks, and played shuttlecock, a traditional game in which players use their feet to keep a weighted, feathered object aloft — something like a Chinese cousin of hacky sack.

The activities offered an easy way in. You didn’t have to know Chinese or understand the meaning of every tradition. That openness was part of what Mei hoped to create. She teaches “Communicating in Chinese I,” a first-year course offered in a hybrid format. Her students are learning the language, but the course has a larger goal: using it to connect with other people.

At the festival, students put a month of learning into practice. They introduced themselves in Chinese, performed tongue twisters and recited a Chinese poem. Global Academy at Guilford students, many of whom are students from China, joined them, creating more chances to exchange stories and perspectives.

Then there was the music.

Students sat together on the floor in Founders, listening and asking questions. It was one of Mei’s favorite moments of the afternoon. The conversation, she said, felt as important as the performance.

It also reminded Mei of something she appreciates about Guilford. She sees the College’s Quaker spirit in students sitting together, talking in a relaxed atmosphere and making room for one another’s ideas. She wanted the festival to offer that same space for cultural exchange.

The afternoon took many hands to make possible. Mei organized it with support from Senior International Officer Sarah Munro ’09 and Global & Off-Campus Initiatives, ECGA, colleagues in Modern Language Studies and Guilford’s leadership. ECGA and international students volunteered alongside students in her Chinese class. Their work helped welcome people from both the campus and the wider community.

Mei hopes the festival is a beginning. She wants to keep building the Chinese program and create more opportunities for students to use what they learn with people beyond their classroom. Plans are already taking shape for a Spring Festival celebration next semester, welcoming the Year of the Fire Goat.

It is easy to think of learning about another culture as something that happens in a classroom. At Guilford, sometimes it happens over a piece of mooncake or a few minutes trying to keep a shuttlecock in the air.

“I think students learned a little bit more about a part of the world they’ve never been to,” says Mei. “What’s better is they learned more about each other.”