The Office of International Affairs held the 2024 International Cultural Fair on December 9 (Monday), starting at 3:30 pm on the square in front of the school auditorium. Students from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, St. Lucia, Belize, St. Vincent, Pakistan set up cultural experience booths where they sold exotic food, drinks and crafts next to local students who offered traditional Taiwanese cuisine and Hakka delicacies, Christmas gifts and other interesting items. Together, they created a warm and relaxing international environment with many sights, sounds, and smells that attracted teachers, students and staff from around the university.
Tzean Yuh, Vice-Dean of the Office of International Affairs, personally came to kick off the event. Making an address to those present, Yuh said “I am very happy to see local and overseas students participating in this event together. Currently, there are international students from over 40 different countries studying on the NPUST campus—a campus, which has for a long time enjoyed a unique form of international and social diversity. This International Cultural Fair brings us together here to enjoy a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere, share with each other, and understand different cultures. It is very meaningful.”
Following Yuh’s speech, the school’s Korean MV Dance Club put on a youthful and charming dance performance on stage. Students from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia and India enrolled in the New Southbound Special Class also put choreographed a dance routine and sang songs in Chinese to the applause of the audience. Finally, Han Li Yap, a Malaysian student studying at the Department of Aquaculture, played the dulcimer, delicately striking out a rich and charming melody for a vibrant and intoxicating performance.
Meanwhile, the market space was bustling with visitors checking out stalls where they could purchase Marshallese cultural prints, St. Lucian traditional games, and a wide variety of snacks and cuisine from Malaysia, Vietnam, Pakistani, St. Vincent, Mexican and Hong Kong. Taiwan, the land of cuisine, was no less generous, offering Hakka rice dumplings, fried rice, rice dumplings, rice cakes, ancient-style pork rice, chestnut vegetable oil rice, taro purple rice cakes, taro sago, handmade burgers, swordfish tempura, and much more. The wide variety of Taiwanese dishes were prepared by students from the Department of Hotel and Restaurant Management who came to join in on the fun. In addition to rich array of foods, a wide selection of cultural and creative souvenirs were available at the market, including Taiwan-made socks, knitted bags, beeswax candles, handmade organic cotton plant-dyed yoga mats and more. All together it was a pleasant scene where local and international students, faculty, and staff members of the university were able to enjoy a lively time of international cultural exchange.
