Students take part in Mid-Autumn Festival

The Trojan Center Ballrooms were filled with students for a night of performance, dinner and cultural interaction Monday night at Troy University’s Mid-Autumn Festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is a Chinese tradition that occurs at the lunar calendar’s beginning of what is known as Autumn.  

It’s a day often compared to Thanksgiving, in which people have time off work and dedicate a day to spending time with their family, enjoying performances, lots of food and appreciating the world around them. Students who are a part of the “1-2-1 Program” brought these traditional Chinese festivities to their American peers to show the two cultures aren’t truly that different. 

“Sometimes the movies’ plots are completely different to the reality of China, so I believe tonight’s show is the perfect and the most direct way to show Troy University what China is actually like and what is traditional,” said Graduate Assistant and Event Organizer Leo Wei. “Troy University is the first ever home of our 1-2-1 American Chinese program, so I believe this is such a great honor to share this event with Troy” 

The “1-2-1 Program” is a partnership between American and China universities that allows Chinese students to spend their first year of college in China, the next two years in America and the final year back in China, ending their program with a degree from both universities.   

Zhe Chen, the event’s host and a student from China in the 1-2-1 program in his first year here in Troy, said it isn’t the easiest switch to make, but he knows it will help him grow. 

“I’m a very shy person, and I’ve never done this host thing before,” Chen said. “My English is not that perfect, so it’s a double challenge for me, but there’s a lot of challenges in life, and this is just a small case.  

“I want to show myself and experience new things; that’s why I'm going to Troy from another country half the earth away. I want to make myself become better and better.” 

Troy’s Assistant Director of China Operations, Austin Deal, said this growth for the students, along with the blending of the cultures of two countries, is the main goal of the program. 

“The young people of today will be the future business and political leaders of tomorrow” Deal said. “Since they have this opportunity to experience other cultures, these students will go on to be the leaders.  

“The U.S. and the Chinese is a very interesting and sometimes tense relationship, so I think having exchanges like this between these two great countries is beneficial for both sides.” 

The next event planned for the program is the Lunar New Year festival in February next semester.