2021 International Cultural Festival: Cultural Sharing LIVE Shows
Under the influence of the pandemic, the International Cultural Festival from March 16 to 18 this year was held online. It features a series of activities in which foreign students introduce the culture of their home country through live stream every day at noon.
Volunteers at the NTNU International Youth arranged the setting of livestream and acted as social media page mangers during the shows and responded to comments from the audience. The campus was full of energetic atmosphere of the cultural festival. As many as 59 audience members were online at the same time watching the livestream. In previous years, the International Cultural Festival was held on Sunlight Avenue on main campus. Students shared their culture and their delicacy. Last year, the cultural festival was stopped because of the pandemic. This year, NTU System decided to hold an online version of the cultural festival.
OIA invited students from The Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia to share their culture and food to students of NTU System. Paco Najar, a PhD student from the Graduate Institute of Translation and Interpretation, hosted the livestream. He introduced the programs fluently in English and Chinese.
The first group of Filipino students introduced their islands, history, touristic attractions and how their culture was affected by the Chinese culture. The Vietnamese students in the second group demonstrated how to brew coffee using the famous Vietnamese phin filter as well as the beautiful Áo dài, the national garment of Vietnam. They also generously offered coffee bags as gifts to the audience.
The third group comes from Indonesia. They wore different styles of Batik and introduced the meaning of different patterns. Batik is a technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to the whole cloth which was recognized as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2009.
The streaming received a total of 627 views and 9100 reach online in three days. After the livestream, the foreign students expressed their joy and happiness to share their culture with students of NTU system, hoping that they could have more time next time.
Videos online: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMQhMVx9LFow_ImgPulKaFfv0etPZ95wH