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Lively Chinese traditional music spread through the Underground, which was decorated with red. Xiaoyu Liao said she heard familiar Chinese music while she was playing games and talking to friends, and this experience brought her back to a childhood memory in China.

The celebration was put on in the Schine Student Center by Global China Connection, an organization that aims to provide a cultural exchange and disseminate Chinese culture within SU’s campus, to observe the Lantern Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the Chinese lunar calendar.

GCC set up seven traditional Chinese games from 2-6 p.m. on Tuesday to celebrate. The organization built a lantern wall for visitors to take photos, and it brought great prizes — like LEGO sets and 2022 Beijing Olympics mascot keychains — for the winners.

These interactive activities include writing Chinese calligraphy “Fu” (which means wealth and fortune), Chinese paper-cutting, DIY bracelets, Pitch-pot, solving lantern riddles and spinning the lucky wheel. Each table had two or three members to lead the activities and explain the rules to participants.

“These Chinese traditional game activities are open for every SU student and community and to build cultural connection,” said Zeming Lu, the current president of the Syracuse chapter of GCC.

The Lantern Festival originates from ancient China. During the festival, when people were no longer restricted by the night curfew implemented by the feudal government, they went outside to the streets, which were decorated with a variety of lanterns.

In addition to a lantern show, folk art also gradually emerged in street activities and eventually became more commercialized with interactive games. GCC said it was inspired by this custom to bring seven of the most common games of the Lantern Festival to SU.

Wei Gao, the associate director of Operations and Outreach at the Center of International Services, said she appreciated that GCC could draw SU Chinese students’ attention to participate in these activities.

“I am looking forward to seeing that GCC’s event can enlist a larger platform at SU such as the community calendar so that more and more SU students that come from different countries will see this event,” Gao said.

Invited by Gao, Ling Tzu Guo, a Mandarin teacher at Manlius Pebble Hill School, took several high school students to join the event to experience diverse cultures.

“These seven activities provide them an immersive class, which help them not only know about Chinese customs but also practice their Chinese through these activities,” Guo said.

Joshua Jones, an SU junior who works at Underground, helped organize the Lantern Festival celebration. He managed the venue’s facilities and also engaged with students’ activities.

“I was really excited that I could also learn calligraphy stroke while working here tonight and it was definitely a great experience for me,” Jones said.

Lu added that the aim of the GCC Lantern Festival is to make Chinese students at SU feel at home. COVID-19 restricted international travel mobility and forced many international students to make rash decisions on places to develop their career paths. Some students went home to China while some of them chose to stay in the U.S. when the pandemic arrived in the U.S.

“We experienced a several-month hiatus to hold in-person activities because of the pandemic,” Lu said. “It was nice to see the team members all back to campus.”

Published on February 16, 2022 at 1:56 am

Contact Mengyao: mwang62@syr.edu