The annual celebration of Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as Moon Festival) was successfully held online via Zoom in the evening of September 30, 2020, 7:30-9:00 p.m.
During the event, students from IUP Chinese language courses and FNLG121 (Humanities Literature), taught by Shijuan Liu, shared about the poems and stories they learned associated with this traditional Chinese holiday. In addition, participants watched related videos and learned about the origins of the names of Chang'e (a lady name), Yutu (Jade rabbit), and Queqiao (Magpie bridge), used for some space aircraft in Chinese lunar exploration missions.
In the second half of the event, a guest speaker, Kai CAI (PhD in astrophysics from Indiana University Bloomington, BS from Peking University, China), was invited to give a presentation titled "The Moon and Ancient Chinese Astronomy." Two rounds of competitions were held among participants for their understanding of the content presented in the event. Six winners (who were required to be IUP students) were selected to receive gift cards from the IUP Co-op store. The event not only drew participants from IUP community, but also attracted several from other states such as California and North Carolina.
The event was organized by the IUP Chinese Language program and the IUP Chinese Language and Culture Club. In addition to Liu, the Chinese language program professor and the club faculty advisor, the club president (Julianna Hindman), and the vice president (Angelina Pham) also gave presentations at the event.