Collegiate Times

Shuo Chen performs the Tibet Dance during the Mid-Autumn Festival, held by the Chinese Student Association Saturday in the Graduate Life Center. Turn to page 4 for additional coverage of the event.

Hundreds of Chinese students at Virginia Tech, as well as Chinese living in Blacksburg, gathered together in the Graduate Life Center on Saturday to celebrate the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival and eat moon cakes.

The event was sponsored by the Association of Chinese Students and Scholars.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also called the Moon Cake Festival, is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month in observance of the plentiful autumn harvest. This year, the provost, the dean of graduate students and the director for Multicultural Affairs all gave speeches prior to the show.

Moon cakes are puck-shaped pastries consisting of a thin crust enveloping a thick pasty filling that may contain yolk from salted duck eggs. They are very rich and dense and are usually served with Chinese tea.

"The moon cakes have different flavors in them and are round to celebrate this time of the year when the moon is the most round," said ACSS vice president Hui Lin. "The roundness of the moon is a symbol for all the family members to come home and come together."

Although there are many different varieties, all moon cakes have an imprint on the top containing the Chinese characters meaning "longevity" or "harmony." Moon cakes are very difficult to make and are very expensive, costing up to $5 a piece.

"The moon cakes are hard to find in the United States; we had to get the moon cakes here today from Washington, D.C.," said ACSS President Liguang Xie.

Moon cakes and other authentic foods were served from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. followed by a special show at 7:30 p.m. The show consisted of speakers, a traditional fan dance and a medley of traditional folk songs. There was also a performance by children from the Blacksburg Chinese School and a performance by the Chinese American Society.

"The community here, all their family members come from China, so they are most likely spending time with their friends but cannot be with their family," Lin said. "We have this event every year so they will not be homesick and can all come together as a community."

Bin Zhang, a Chinese graduate student who did his bachelor's work in China and is getting his Ph.D. at Tech, enjoyed the festival for the second time.

"It is a unique party to China, and there is a Chinese traditional performance that they do here," Zhang said. "The festival is really a time for the whole family to get together."