Activity Name: 2024 ‘Taiwan Fellowship’ and ‘Research Grant for Foreign Scholars in Chinese Studies’ Cultural Trip and Dragon Boat Festival Celebrations
On Wednesday, May 29th, 2024, the National Central Library (NCL) specially held a cultural trip and Dragon Boat Festival Celebration for the scholars who had come to Taiwan with either the ‘Taiwan Fellowship’ or the ‘Research Grant for Foreign Scholars in Chinese Studies’. This cultural activity introduced how Taiwan celebrates this holiday and introduced the surrounding customs. It subsequently encouraged scholars to interact with one another.
The activity was co-hosted between both the Center for Chinese Studies (CCS) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) which took both scholars and their families to Wulai and Pinglin to experience Taiwanese tea culture. The scholars and their families were taken to a farm where they put on some gathering equipment and went to collect tea leaves for themselves. The harvested tea leaves were then used to make tea-flavored cakes. Each scholar had the chance to taste their handmade cakes. The NCL later gave them specially made rice dumpling-shaped (Zongzi-shaped) fragrant sachets; wishing them good fortune.
The activity had a total of fifty-one participants (scholars and families included) from twenty-three countries. They all deeply experienced Taiwanese tea culture and the holiday festivities.