“Mid-Autumn Festival is a day for family reunion. I feel like I can express how I miss my family by making these festive lanterns.” A student from Indonesia, Wang Junxian, said this with joy while celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival on September 11. It was the first Chinese culture class Wang Junxian, a winner of the “Silk Road Scholarship”, attended since coming to this university. He was one of nearly 70 foreign students who attended the class. The foreign students come from all over the world: Italy, Russia, America, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Mongolia, France, Morocco, Tajikistan, India, Uzbekistan and Thailand.

At the beginning of the class, the origin and customs of the Mid-Autumn festival were introduced. The presenter, Lei Yan, a junior majoring in International Education in Chinese, mentioned “I have spent at least 10 days preparing this culture class to try to make sure the foreign students have a great experience. China has an ancient history with various traditional festivals and customs with special meanings. I hope that from this experience they deeply feel the wisdom and kindness of the Chinese people” .

After finishing learning about the festival’s cultural background, they learned to make traditional lanterns. Wang Junxian used a pair of scissors to make paper cuttings and then attached them carefully to the lantern. Some foreign students even wrote down names or blessings on them. Then everyone turned their lanterns on, and the whole classroom suddenly lit up with beautiful lights in all kinds of patterns, accompanied by a waves of laughers and applause. After the class, foreign students also enjoyed delicious moon cakes.

“I heard that the Mid-Autumn festival is approaching. I will share my lantern with my family and tell them stories from the festival.” Wang Junxian said excitedly.

“Since 2014, our university has started to launch new courses combining cultural knowledge and interactive activities like lantern making among many others. These lessons account for nearly 200 academic hours,” Zhang Yulei explained. In order to further promote our internationalization and work towards building its reputation for excelling in international studies, JISU set up a “Chinese Culture Workshop” on March 5, 2016.

“Chinese Culture Workshop” is a practical a course that provides a great opportunity for all the foreign students to experience Chinese culture. It is provided by college students from the “Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages Communication Institute” student club which is under the guidance of teachers from the International Exchanges School. Strategically located in the international language culture practice and teaching center known as the Global Village, this course helps students learn the unique local customs of Jilin. The course focuses on Chinese traditional culture including folk music, Chinese calligraphy, kite-making, paper cutting, Chinese knot tying, Chinese tea art, martial arts, traditional festival customs, Chinese medicine, and much more. The course aims to allow foreign students to learn Chinese through a variety of environments and experiences and help them better understand China and its rich culture.

International education at JISU has always attracted lots of foreign students. Nearly 300 foreign students from over 20 countries enroll at JISU every year because of its original yet practical courses that provide an invaluable cultural immersion experience.