With Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, the Taiwan Overseas Education Center and Mandarin Learning Center in the San Francisco Bay Area held a celebration event last Saturday (September 14) in Milpitas, South Bay. More than 200 teachers, students, and their families came together to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in a warm atmosphere filled with Taiwanese cultural sentiments.
The Taiwan Center for Mandarin Learning (TCML) is a program promoted by the Overseas Community Affairs Council of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Launched in June 2021, the program aims to assist overseas community schools in establishing specialized learning centers to teach and promote Mandarin education with Taiwanese characteristics.
The TCML, which organized the Mid-Autumn event in Milpitas, is hosted by the Little Scholars Education Academy in the Bay Area.
Director Zhuang Yashu of the San Francisco Bay Area Overseas Education Center attended last Saturday’s event to extend Mid-Autumn Festival greetings to the TCML staff, students, and attendees. She mentioned in an interview with Dajiyuan that Northern California opened TCML in 2022, with a total of 8 overseas community schools having established TCML so far. The Little Scholars Education Academy is the second community school in the Bay Area to offer TCML.
Director Zhuang also introduced that TCML currently holds four cultural guided tour events each year, including “Taiwan Qingming and Cold Food Festival Culture” in April, “Taiwan Dragon Boat Festival Food and Culture” in May, “Taiwan Traditional Food and Children’s Play Culture” in July, and “Taiwan Mid-Autumn Festival Food and Culture”. She expressed, “Learning Mandarin through cultural activities is the most convenient and effective way to experience the charm of the language.”
Regional Director Huang Xinyi of the Little Scholars Education Academy told Dajiyuan that since March 2022, the school has been participating in the TCML teaching program, with nearly 3 years of history. The TCML classes at Little Scholars have around twenty American adult participants per session and are well-received by local residents.
During last Saturday’s event, American students of TCML recited Li Bai’s poem “Quiet Night Thoughts” and performed the popular song “The Moon Represents My Heart” for the audience.
Teachers of the TCML program informed attendees about the origins, traditions of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Taiwanese customs, and culinary culture. There were also activities such as mooncake making, tasting, eating pomelo, making pomelo hats, tea tasting, face painting, and other games with Taiwanese characteristics on-site.