‘Chinese Old Home Week’
Chinese immigrants show appreciation to Rotarians by sharing customs and foods during Moon Festival
When Chinese immigrants Leon Liang, Larkin Lin and Edward Wang joined the Rotary Club of Charlottetown Royalty, they were so impressed with the warm welcome they received they wanted to return the hospitality.
“The people in the club took good care of us,” says Liang.
So after some discussion, they called on other members of the P.E.I. Chinese community to help them organize a midautumn festival for Rotary Club members and their partners at the Farm Centre in Charlottetown this past Saturday.
“In China, we celebrate it as a family reunion. People come back home to meet their parents, relatives and friends and have dinner together,” says Liang.
His wife agrees.
“It’s like Old Home Week,” says Katie Zhu, pointing to a table filled with appetizers, fruit and desserts, prepared by community members.
Besides a buffet meal, the event included a PowerPoint presentation on the Chinese Lunar Festival, held this month, music by William Yao and Sunny Wang and a presentation on making of mooncakes and dumplings.
Chinese dumplings, eaten as appetizers or served as part of a main meal, are made of ground beef, chopped carrots and onions, oil and soya sauce, wrapped into a piece of pastry. They are then fried until golden brown.
Mooncakes are round baked desserts that are eaten during the mid-autumn festival for good luck. They are made by stretching a thin circle of pastry over a ball of nut filling and stuffing it into a moon cake mold, which pulls everything together and gives it a pretty design before they go into the oven.
Watching as simple ingredients are turned into pretty pieces of edible art impresses Barry Maze.
“By sampling mooncakes and dumplings, the event is a great opportunity to experience Chinese culture and meet members of the Chinese community,” says the Rotarian.
After a food preparation demonstration, guests are invited to try their hand. Barb Rhodenhizer is one of the first to get into the act at the mooncake counter.
“It was a lovely thing for them to do, to share some of their traditions with us. Everyone was so welcoming and gracious, even though we were a little inept, at first, at making them…. I pounded that thing down,” says Rhodenhizer, with a laugh.
Watching Rotarians and their partners take up the cultural challenge pleases community member Sean Wang.
“It’s very interesting to see (Canadian) people make traditional Chinese food,” he smiles.
And, for Liang and his two friends, it’s an afternoon of appreciation.
“We came here as immigrants (four years ago), and the local community gave us a chance to settle down. We brought our kids, and they are now receiving an education,” he says.
“The local people are very friendly, and we’re so grateful. And to say thank you, we wanted to organize the event.”