A waterside pavilion on the lake, ripples sweeping across water surface and tree branches covering the corridor. Several five-color fragrant sachets were lying on the table, with the tantalizing aroma of zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) wafting through the air, making their way out of the carved wooden pavilion. On a piece of Xuan paper, the Chinese characters “Duan Wu” (端午, Dragon Boat Festival) were freshly written with ink brushes. Undoubtedly, this was the Dragon Boat Festival, one of the most important traditional festivals in China, being celebrated.

“The Dragon Boat Festival comes on every May 5th (of the Chinese lunar calendar), when it’s time to hang calamus and wormwood clusters, wear fragarant sachets, eat sugared zongzi and row dragon boats joyfully.”

Watching the scene and hearing the ballad, you might think it must be in a classical garden in China and people are celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival. But take a closer look, and you would find that under the green-tiled rooftops, a few blonde little girls were carefully sewing fragrant sachets with needles and threads. Near this Chinese-style pavilion stood high-rise buildings, and road signs and festival description reflected in the water were written in both Chinese and English. Yes, this was not China, but the Chinese Garden of Friendship, a Chinese-style garden, in the Darling Harbor of Sydney. In this garden that symbolizes the Sino-Australia friendship, a group of tourists who came to experience the Chinese culture had an unforgettable Dragon Boat Festival , with volunteer teachers from the Confucius Institute at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

“Qu Yuan’s soul has never perished in all ages, and the customs prevalent in the State of Chu remain till today.”

——[明]边贡

Excerpts from a poem written by BIAN Gong in the Ming Dynasty

“When is the Dragon Boat Festival?”

“It falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.”

“What do people eat that day?”

“Zongzi!”

“In memory of?”

“Qu Yuan!”

In the carved pavilion on the lake side inside the Chinese Garden of Friendship, Liam, the UNSW cultural ambassador, was delivering a lecture on the culture of the Dragon Boat Festival to Chinese language learners from a girls’ school in Sydney. Liam was also a Chinese language learner himself, who loved the Chinese culture and would like to convey that passion for the Chinese language to his countrymen. He fervently talked about how the festival originated and how its customs were passed on from generation to generation. Girls present were very much curious and attentive to his introduction. Although they didn’t yet have a good command of the Chinese language, they were very active in responding to any question he posed and tried to get their ideas across in Chinese. Acquiring a foreign language requires a keen understanding of the culture on which the language is based in addition to language skills. And a cultural experience deepens the understanding of a foreign language and the people associated therewith, which in turn makes it easier for learners to use the language. The lecture lasted only half an hour, but the girls were very conscientious, which impressed all of us.

“The rice is wrapped and molded into a shape with multiple angles. Colorful ribbons are cut and twined around the wrapped zongzi.”

——[宋]陈怡

Excerpts from a poem written by CHEN Yi in the Song Dynasty

After the lecture, the girls tasted the delicious zongzi. With much elation, they were then taken to a pavilion on an artificial hill at the Chinese Garden of Friendship. Here, they were about to learn how to make fragrant sachets for the festival from UNSW volunteer teachers and cultural ambassadors from various schools in Sydney.

Dressing kids up with a perfume pouch has been one of the customs of this festival. Such sachets are usually woven with ribbons of five different colors and contains herbal medicines such as cinnabar and realgar, which would ward off evil spirits and illnesses. The little sachets reflect not only the ingenious craftsmanship of the Chinese people but their unique perspectives on aesthetics and regimen.

With the help of the volunteer teachers and cultural ambassadors, the little girls managed to put the spices into the sachets and carefully string them with silk threads using a silver needle. After a while, one sachet was made after another! The little girls were so fond of the sachets that they each wore one in front of their chest while listening to the volunteer teachers. All of them received best wishes from the Chinese traditions.

“The characters are forcefully and elegantly written. Some strokes are thick while others are thin, the ink aroma filling the air.”

Calligraphy and paintings are essence of the Chinese cultural. Chinese calligraphy is hailed as something reminiscent of poems, dances, paintings and music, while Chinese paintings are an artifact demonstrating the aesthetics and philosophy of the Chinese people. They are integeral to an experience of Chinese culture. Therefore, the volunteer teachers of the UNSW Confucius Institute and cultural ambassadors created a “School of Calligraphy and Painting” at the Chinese Garden of Friendship, where tourists could write Chinese characters or draw Chinese paintings with a brush to appreciate their glamor with the teachers.

One stroke after another, people there were stunned and excited when they saw their Chinese names written with ink brushes, especially the little girls who were so elated that they surrounded the volunteer teachers and cultural ambassadors, asking about the relations between Chinese characters and calligraphy and the symbolic meaning of each item in Chinese paintings. And some little girls, with a brush in their hands, asked the teachers to teach them how to write and draw.

The teachers and cultural ambassadors were surprisingly delighted to see how enthusiastic the little girls were about Chinese calligraphy and paitings. Surprisingly still, towards the end of the event, some of them secretly gathered and spoke “Xiexie” (thank you in Chinese) out loud in one voice. Though the words were simple, the sincerity was true and touching to everyone.

In addition to the activities arranged for commemorating Qu Yuan, eating zongzi, sewing sachets, writing Chinese characters and drawing Chinese paintings, the volunteer teachers from the UNSW Confucius Institute also organized an activity for finding 12 animal signs of the Chinese zodiac. The lovely animal signs were hidden across the garden: in the shade of the trees, on the screen wall, in the corridor or at the waterside. Anyone who found all of them would be awarded a lovely panda doll! I have to say, the panda dolls were immensely alluring! To bring one home, the tourists went out of their way to climb up the steps to the pavilion, go through the corridor and gently push aside the flowers and willows to check if there was a animal sign. A Ukrainian couple resorted to a volunteer teacher while searching for the animal signs, asking about the significance of the zodiac and confirming its total number. They told the teacher their years of birth and got to know their own zodiac animal signs, with which they happily took photos.

Although the event lasted for only a day, all of us, be it the volunteer teachers, the cultural ambassadors or the tourists, had an unforgettable Dragon Boat Festival. With homesickness and the glamor of the Chinese culture, it made those of us abroad feel at home and those foreigners feel as if they were in China. And that’s exactly what I traveled so far for: to see the flower of cultural exchange blossom on the earth! That was pure joy!

By Wu Qian, volunteer at the Confucius Institute at the University of New South Wales in Sydney in 2019.