News Report

Cultural Workshop: Make Dumplings!

By Wang Yuan

On October 18th, 2017, at the cafeteria in Student Center, main campus of Moi University, the Confucius Institute at Moi University (CIMU) held this semester’s first cultural workshop – make dumplings.

Dumpling is one of Chinese traditional cuisine. It is one of the best ways to show Chinese cuisine culture to Moi University students. Therefore, teaching students how to prepare dumplings is not only laying the foundation for learning Chinese language in Chinese classes, but also inspire students' interest in China and Chinese culture.
Before CIMU teachers arrived, many students had already waited anxiously in the cafeteria. As soon as they arrived, the students enthusiastically greeted the teachers. With students’ enthusiasm, the dumpling workshop campaign was finally carried out in full swing.
Dumpling making begins with washing hands. Then students formed a “meat circle” and a “vegetable circle”. The so-called "meat circle" was where the dumplings were stuffed with beef and celery, and the "vegetable circle" was where the dumplings were stuffed with carrot and egg. The stuffing had already been prepared the night before.

The first step of making dumplings is "dough making". One of the teachers gave an example of dough making and another teacher taught students how to say related Chinese words like “饺子（jiǎo zi，dumpling）”“牛肉（niú ròu, beef）”“芹菜（qín cài, celery）”. After Chinese language learning, students began to work on it. Even the staff of the cafeteria joined the battle.

The second step was “roll the wrappers”. One of the volunteer teacher Jiang Zhaofeng showed his splendid rolling skill which dazzled almost all students and the other teachers. After teachers’ technique explanation, students began to do it by themselves and proudly presented their dumpling wrapper to the teachers and students around them.
 

The third step was making dumplings. Teachers first showed the students different package methods, while the students did it by themselves, the volunteer teachers circulated around and answered questions from the students. In the end, the dumplings they packaged were very different in shapes.

The last step in making dumplings was boiling the dumplings! The gas in the school’s cafeteria was not available that day, so the teachers and students used a  large stove to cook dumplings.  In the process of waiting for water to boil, volunteer teacher Wang Yuan conducted Chinese teaching such as “cooking dumplings” and “water is boiled”. There were more and more people in the kitchen. The students were carrying plates and curiously asking how to cook dumplings. Finally the dumplings were ready! The students couldn’t wait to taste: some students ate the dumplings without spices, some ate with vinegar, while others ate with ketchup, the dumplings were instantly snapped out. One student repeatedly said“饺子真好吃！饺子真好吃！(dumpling is very delicious!)”

This dumpling-making culture workshop showed students the whole process of making dumplings, which not only allowed students to understand more about Chinese food culture through practice, but also helped students learn Chinese language and raised students’ interest about China and Chinese culture.