Turnout exceeded expectations at the Chinese Student Association’s (CSA) Mid-Autumn Festival on Saturday, Sept. 26, with an estimated 300 participants coming to Harris Center’s Concert Hall for an evening of games, performances and Chinese food.
This year’s turnout exceeded previous iterations of the CSA’s Mid-Autumn Festival events and their expectations of roughly 200 attendees, said CSA President Thomas Bao `28.
Festivities included games related to Chinese traditions, student music performances telling the story of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and enjoying free Chinese food and boba.
Bao said several factors contributed to a larger-than-expected turnout — such as extensive promotional efforts and a general open-mindedness of the student body.
“We did a lot of advertising this year. I’ve sent emails to all the Chinese professors at the College asking them if they were willing to promote this event in their classes,” said Bao. “A lot of my Chinese friends also supported me, so they told their other friends and non-Chinese friends about it.”
Additionally, said Bao, the CSA worked with the College to cater from Iowa City, which proved a major draw for attendees. Students waited in lines that stretched across the length of the Harris Concert Hall. Selected dishes included stir fried eggs and lamb, and pork dishes like braised pork ribs and moo shu pork, and students had to participate in several traditional games set up in the concert hall to receive their share of food.
Besides the games and food, there were also seven musical performances intentionally woven together in a sequence to retell the ancient Chinese myth of Chang’e and the moon.
Bao said that for the large number of international students who are unable to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with their families back home, the event was particularly meaningful.
“Originally, this was just a holiday for family gatherings, like Thanksgiving, because it’s also harvest time,” said Professor Jin Feng, chair of the Chinese and Japanese department. “People worship the moon, eat something good together and families get together.”
“For the whole CSA community, I think it was a chance to get together. We don’t have our families here, but we can join together with our friends and the whole community at this college,” said Bao.
Feng said that there is a particular importance of celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival at a place like Grinnell College, as it becomes a form of experiential learning.
“You actually get to taste the food and mingle with people who are familiar with or from that tradition. I don’t think that can be replaced in the classroom setting,” said Feng. “So I think this is a great opportunity for people to learn about each other’s culture and talk and have fun.”
The four games that were set up at the event were inspired by games played during traditional celebrations of the Mid-Autumn Festival, with a modern-day spin. Attendees were able to participate in lantern riddles and card games, as well as a station where they could write their wishes to pin up on a board.
“It was a traditional thing done in temples in China,” said Bao, referring to the wish-writing activity.
“Our plan is to bring it back for the Spring Festival with all the wishes that have been written on them, so the number of wishes can get bigger and bigger as time goes on,” he said, referring to the upcoming Lunar New Year, another significant cultural event that will take place early in the spring 2027 semester.
Bao said the Mid-Autumn Festival had been long in the works.
“We have been preparing this since the beginning of the summer. The plan for this Mid-Autumn Festival started in June,” said Bao.