Middle School Cultural Bazaar: Eat Play Love

After weeks of anticipation and hard work, the first cultural bazaar at SHSID was hosted by 7-8th grade on the afternoon of March 30th. In this activity, every homeroom was asked to represent a country. They each set up booths to display the different aspects of the country’s culture. Students and teachers have already been preparing for this event for weeks, designing beautiful posters, outstanding banners, creative activities, and of course, learning about the cuisine.

A country’s cuisine is probably the most appealing way of displaying its culture. During the event, the most popular stands definitely had the best food. Students and teachers bustled around the tables. Within a few minutes, the cafeteria was filling up with the delicious smells of all the different delicacies. With the help of enthusiastic parents, plates, bowls, and even cups of enticing and nutritious cuisines were placed on hundreds of tables, right before everyone else got hungry. In our cultural bazaar, the most popular foods were American hotdogs, Italian Pizza, Mexican tacos, Indian Naan bread, Korean spicy rice cakes, Hainanese chicken rice at the Singaporean stand, Thai fried noodles, and so many more. Not only did everybody enjoy tasting these cuisines, but they also had a chance to understand the many cultures of the countries in the cultural bazaar.

However, without the activities, the event would not have been complete. Every homeroom has a few students in charge of coming up with original activities that are related to the sports of their country. We saw sports games like shooting basketballs, hitting baseballs, and playing soccer. Some students came up with great ideas for games that involved their country’s language and dialects. To add more excitement into the cultural bazaar, some students even wore costumes for this event, such as the sari that belongs to Indian traditions. If you looked around, you could see students with tattoos of flags and special face paints on their cheeks. In the middle of the event, there was another delightful surprise when a line of ASBs held up a Chinese dragon and weaved their way through the crowd. There was so much to see, so much to do, and everyone was having so much fun!

Every year SHSID hosts their charity fairs, and they donate the money raised to those in need. This time, we raised more than 54000 RMB for donation programs. Everyone’s hard work paid off when the money they raised was handed in to their teachers. This wonderful event not only provided the students a perfect opportunity to gain a better understanding of the cultures of the world, but it also taught students to give help to ones in need.

(Written by 8(1) Megan Cui Picture by Zheng Wenyin Instructed by Zhu Lei)