A mass of Kellogg School of Management students eating pizza caught a glimpse of Taiwanese culture Sunday while peering down into their atrium.
The Taiwanese American Students Club put on its first “Dragon Festival” this spring to celebrate the ancient Chinese holiday of Duan Wu Jie, or the Dragon Boat Festival. Students could partake in activities at the festival that was moved from North Beach to the Jacobs Center atrium, including food, crafts and competitions.
The group usually hosts a speaker event in both Winter and Spring Quarters, but this year the club decided to hold a social event instead, group President Judy Hsu said.
“Generally students learn more when they’re at a social event that has education aspects as opposed to just sitting down and being talked to,” the Weinberg sophomore said.
Many visitors made their first stop the “Dragon Delights” table, which offered a selection of foods traditionally associated with the festival, including pot stickers, sausage and Zhong Zi, a steamed rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves. Taiwanese pop music played throughout the event from a PA system in the corner of the atrium, and a group of display boards containing information on the festival, Zhong Zi, Taiwanese history and culture and the Taiwanese American Students Club itself stood in the center of the room.
The festival commemorates the death of a patriot poet named Qu Yuan, who committed suicide by drowning himself in a river to protest the corruption in the palace of the Chu state, which was gradually losing ground to the powerful Qin state in the 3rd century BC. When the people heard of this, they rushed out in boats to find his body, and when they could not, they threw Zhong Zi into the water so the fish would not eat Qu Yuan’s body.
Members of the group presented this story after people finished eating with a brief skit, which featured a group member dragging a small inflatable raft across the floor, to symbolize the villagers searching for Qu Yuan. A second skit explained the origins of yellow wine and Ling Zhi, a traditional herbal beverage.
After the skits, some of the students went outside to Deering Meadow for games of tug-of-war and kite flying. The group finished off the afternoon with a food relay, where two teams of four competed to finish pot stickers and dumplings.
The importance of certain foods to the Dragon Festival made it an ideal choice for a campus event, said secretary Sharon Kuo.
“Food really attracts people to come to your events, so since food is a really big part of this event, it’s a good way to showcase it,” the Weinberg freshman said.
McCormick freshman Vincent Chou said he came to the festival for the food and to support his friends in the group.
“The skits were very informative,” he said. “It was a bummer it couldn’t be held at the beach, because it was too cold and it was rainy, but it was still cool.”
Group members said they would have liked to take the raft out on the water, but having to relocate to the Jacobs Center made that impossible, Hsu said. Next year, the group plans to decorate the blue and white raft to look like a dragon, though ideally they would partner with groups in the Chicago area who own dragon boats so they could hold a race on the lake, she said. The event would ideally match the success of the group’s annual Fall Quarter event, Taiwan Night Market, Hsu said.
“Hopefully the spring Dragon Festival, with a couple of more trials, in maybe two years will become a huge Spring Quarter event, too,” Hsu said.
