By Diamonte Payton & Ezekiel Stevens
This morning we started off with a breakfast at the Polytechnic College where we ate at traditional Chinese tables. We ate foods that were from both Chinese and Western cultures such as rice, noodles, eggs, and bacon. After that we had our first class hosted by Dr.Tianzhong Deng, the seminar was about Chinese Culture & History. We learned about eight different Chinese culture foods, all of the important Chinese festivals, and the Chinese music five sounds and visceral which are the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys. Other important facts about the Chinese culture that Dr.Tianzhong taught us was that Chinese animals such as the dragon stand for power of the male emperor, when a dish at dinner is served but the full body is still in tack it represents that the whole family is together, and that most Chinese people prefer their language to be Hanyu, Zhongwen, or Cantonese.
After that we had a break where we were allowed time to use the bathroom and snack on various Chinese foods. This lasted 15 minutes until we started a class teaching us about the tourist attractants in China’s top five cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guilin, Xi’an. We discussed music as well learning a popular song called “ Tian Mimi” that translates to your laugh is so sweet. After that we went over the dollar bills in China which are called “RMB” which has different attractions on it. For example, the hundred dollar bill or yuan has the famous Tiananmen Square and the fifty has the Chairmen and a place known as “Potala”. Soon after class ended we ate lunch. After lunch we had a Chinese martial arts workshop where we learned about Wushu, which is a traditional Chinese sport focusing on the cultivation of physical health and spiritual power. Wushu, or Chinese martial arts, actually composes of two concepts, Wu and Shu. Wu means military, and Shu refers to techniques. Functions of Wushu is health improvement, self-defense, education, and Wushu’s function of entertainment and cultural exchange.
After that we had were challenged to the famous CUL vs Polytechnic student Ping-Pong game where CUL won 2-1! After this we had dinner which was filled with various delicious Chinese dishes. Finally, to our final task the most competitive Dough Sculpture making session in history. We were challenged to a task of making pandas out of dough. The dough was made of an edible flour, gluten-free flour, and added preservatives. We were given two hours to construct a panda after being taught by a professional dough sculpture. This process was stressful and aggravating to manipulate the dough, but after the time was up everyone was happy with their pandas. Although neither Diamonte or I placed in the top four it was an amazing experience bonding with our new Chinese brothers and sisters.
