To further promote the Sino-Foreign collaboration in the School of Food and Biological Engineering, an extra curriculum activity section involving both the Chinese and Overseas students was organized and implemented to commemorate the 2019 Dragon Boat Festival on May 25.

The Dragon Boat Festival, also called the “Duanwu” Festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Lunar calendar. For thousands of years, the festival has been marked by eating “Zong zi”, making of the sachets and racing of dragon boats. The Chinese people have had the custom of hanging sachets on Dragon Boat Festival since ancient times. Dragon boat riding and sachet hanging during the Dragon Boat Festival have good health underpinnings.

Unlike last year, this year’s activity session witnessed increased participation of overseas (foreign) students. Participants were grouped in three principal groups and each group engaged in both entertaining and educative activities. These included, fold-the-graphic contest, dancing and the making of sachets. Lovely prizes were awarded to the members of the victorious groups whilst the trailing groups engaged in some talent (dancing) performances to the amazement of the gathering. Group members (comprising Chinese and overseas students) collaborated closely to effortlessly achieve the tasks at hand, which tend to promote cross-cultural interactions.

The ultimate activity, the sachet making, was very educative as everyone participated fully in the making of beautiful and colorful sachets. The totality of the session got participants yearning for more and eagerly looking forward to next year’s session with much enthusiasm.

(School of Food and Biological Engineering)