2024 Chinese Culture Festival

Author: Mia Gu

The Chinese Culture Festival is a yearly event held in Washington D.C. Capitol Hill; this year being held on August 31st. Entering the event, you can experience all different types of Chinese cuisines, cultural games like Go, and many traditional Chinese acts including Tai Chi, Peking operas, lion dances, and more serving as a great opportunity for foreigners to learn about Chinese culture. As part of the Capital Youth Outreach Club, it is my job to write an article highlighting special, and unique parts of the event.

When you first walk in the festival, you will be greeted by the countless different cuisine booths ranging from sweet pastries like blossom cakes or 桃花酥, to savory noodles and street food. With food being such a big part of Chinese culture, it is without a doubt a big portion of the festival with many people visiting because of the cuisines. Having interviewed several people, it came to my attention that almost all of them mentioned the food when asked about the festival. One said “I think the food made me want to come” also mentioning that the traditional Beijing dish, Peking duck, tasted pretty good which I can agree on because I tried it as well. Other popular foods amongst visitors included the traditional Chinese sweet Tanghulu (冰糖葫芦 in Chinese), and Chinese crepes better known as 煎饼馃子. When asking visitors what their favorite foods were that they tried, two responded with Tanghulu. This makes sense as Tanghulu is a really popular street food bought all over China. Besides those, there was also booths selling boba milk tea, ice jelly, fried and hand pulled soup noodles, meat sandwiches (肉夹馍), and more.

As I walked past the food booths, something that surprised me was that a lot of the booths had handmade things, including little keychains and sachets, and handmade Chinese green tea. When I walked up to them, they would explain to me how to make them and the culture behind it which I felt was a lot more meaningful than just selling a manufactured item. One person making the handmade Chinese green tea said she had been learning how to make tea for a while and decided to come to the Culture festival to share her passion and knowledge on the subject. I tried her handmade green tea, and it was really very good. A lot of booths and performances stem from this passion, as when I asked why the performers and booth owners decided to come here, they said “I like to make people happy, and connect with my culture more.” I loved how the overall feeling at the festival was so cheerful and welcoming, it seemed like everyone there was having a lot of fun doing what they loved.

Performances were also a big part of the event. Although I did not watch many (I was too captivated by everything else), the few I did watch were spectacular. I watched an Opera and singing act, along with a guy playing traditional Chinese bamboo flute. They sounded wonderful! As a flute player myself, it intrigued me how different the bamboo flute sounded. It was high pitched and shorter, the sound was like I was in a forest with birds chirping around me if that makes sense. Other acts I know people enjoyed were the martial arts, Tai chi is a fan favorite, and deservedly so.

The last highlight I would like to mention is the parade. As me and the other volunteers of the Capital Youth Outreach Club walked down the street in the parade, there was an unexpected guest to greet us at the end of it; the one and only Miss District of Columbia. She came down to greet us all, and spent the time taking pictures with everyone who asked. It was really an amazing experience meeting her, and had the biggest smile greeting everyone who attended the event.

Overall, this year’s festival was definitely an unforgettable experience with all the unique delicacies, handmade traditional items, and skilled performers. My personal favorite part of it all was, along with most of the others, the food. I would recommend going if you have not yet as it was a great time, and I am looking forward to what the festival will bring next year.

Editor: Sophie Xu