SPARKcon: Creativity at its Finest
By JESSICA QU
Editor: MICHELLE DANNER
SPARKcon is an annual creative festival that showcases a variety of local artists in Raleigh, North Carolina. The goal of SPARKcon is to inspire creativity in all its forms, from visual art, dance, and music to poetry, inventions, and many others, as well as to support local artists. Thus, it is one of the best ways for UPP students to meet a wide array of Americans, experience a new kind of community event, and enjoy volunteering. In order to join this event, New Mind Education hosted a tent, where there were several activities for UPP students to creatively share aspects of Chinese culture with visitors.
On Sunday, September 18th, the New Mind tent was divided into six, hour-long shifts to allow as many students to get involved as possible. New Mind Education thanks to our six interns who oversaw the tent’s operations all on their own! The tent’s activities were divided into four stations: henna tattoos, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese knots and painting a Year of the Monkey mural. Visitors could choose one station to join or rotate through all four.
The busiest and most popular station was drawing Chinese character tattoos with henna or writing people’s names in Chinese onto index cards for them to take home. UPP students prepared large sheets of common Chinese words and their translations during a previous GLC (Global Learning Curriculum) class to display at this station. These Chinese words were provided for American visitors, so they can choose the word they like and know the meaning of it. However, most Americans chose to get their names written in Chinese. Three to four UPP students worked the henna tattoo station during each shift and needed to speak to many different people in English. Young children were the most interested in getting henna tattoos.
“I think making a tattoo was very interesting, and sometimes I got nervous because I didn’t want to mess up,” Xinyang Li said.
“This event can spread Chinese culture, such as teaching them how to say or write their name in Chinese, and even tell the meaning of the word,” Roy Jiacheng Wu said. “Therefore, Americans can know about Chinese culture.”
There were also a few students teaching Americans how to write Chinese calligraphy. UPP students wrote sample Chinese words on index cards, and American visitors could imitate them with ink, calligraphy brushes and rice paper. UPP students also explained the meaning of many of the words as well as demonstrated the proper way to hold the brushes.
“I was proud of myself for teaching them how to write Chinese words, and I could tell [that] some Americans really like Chinese culture,” Hunter Zhengyu Huang said.
Two or three other students per shift taught American visitors how to create lucky Chinese “flower” knots by following printed instructions. This activity required a lot of patience. It was also a challenge for students to describe and teach Americans the steps in English. Although it took some students longer than others, the tangled piles of vibrant paracord were transformed into a display of Chinese knots by the end of the day!
“I feel the Chinese knots can change how American look at Chinese culture,” Jason Jinru Wu said.
The last station, designed to attract visitors to the New Mind tent and allow our students to be more creative, was the Year of the Monkey mural, based on the Chinese zodiac. The mural only had a few guiding lines, so students needed to use their imagination and creativity to paint the colors. American visitors seemed to really like it and they helped finish the painting as well.
“Improving my speaking skills while communicating with the visitors was different than when in speaking class in IEP,” Green Rui Guo said.
Overall, this event taught students many speaking skills that are very important in daily life. If you want to get involved in America and make friends, you have to use your English. You also have to push past your comfort zone to invite them in.
“[We] had a good time with children. It was relaxing and fun,” Zidan Liu said.
