Festivals: Past and Present, East and West
S06
Shunzhu Wang
A comparative approach to exploring Chinese festivals will provide students with a chance to navigate differences as well as similarities between Chinese and American cultures. Video clips, stories/legends, riddles, and songs are used to guide students in their exploration of Chinese festivals. Supplemented by a textbook to ensure the gradual progression of language skills, the course will cover the vocabulary and sentence patterns necessary not only for introducing origins of festivals and describing the activities related to them, but also for performing situational dialogues: placing orders in a restaurant, discussing the daily schedule, expressing likes and dislikes, making arrangements for a trip, commenting on one’s dress, celebrating birthdays, and the ins and outs of college life.