Asian Cultural Week - China

Cultural weeks are a big part of the UWC experience.

Last Sunday, we were more than thrilled to have hosted the Asian cultural week at UWCiM.The Asian student community brought the UWC students all around the Far East. From Shanghai’s skyscrapers to the stories of Pakistani refugees, to a beautiful mashup piece of four songs accompanied by his live guitar, the evening’s celebration was brought to a close by Ruby and Durgesh showing the solidarity of the Indian sub-continent.

Mindy gave an insightful introduction to Taiwan and its impeccable food culture; staring at the presentation, you could see the hunger on people’s faces. Michelle then gave a presentation on Shanghai, where she did a voice-over for a timelapse video of Shanghai’s glamorous sights. She then talked about Shanghainese and its long-lasting legacy on the local dialect. Shanghainese is almost 80% different to Mandarin and is a special feature of the city locals. She also presented unique traits of Shanghai, such as its combination of modern and ancient elements: like the view of the Bund with its preservation of Western architecture displaying the very distinctive Art Deco period which is such a draw now for both Chinese and Westerners. The food presents a big part of the Shanghainese culture as well, such as the steamed buns - broth-filled  Shanghainese steamed pork dumplings, is inarguably one of the great culinary inventions of mankind. Later on, the students from a Chinese background all performed a song by Jay Chou, “The Porcelain”, a poetic and beautiful lyric on a love story.

The cultural week is a celebration of the Asian continent’s historical, contemporary, and future cultural diversity that is of growing importance in today’s world.

©️ Written by Michelle Wang 王裕昕. Edited by Suyin Chan 陈素茵