TCLP Chinese exchange teacher Liu Jia was awarded a CLP grant to celebrate Chinese language and culture at “Chinese New Year at The Domes”, which is an annual festival held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Through the support of the CLP award, Liu Jia and her students from Milwaukee School of Languages rented a booth at the festival and developed a scavenger hunt.
Students worked in groups to research information about three of the most famous cities in China: Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi'an. The student participants then created informational posters to display at the festival and designed tasks related to the different cities for attendees to complete. Attendees earned “stamps” on their festival passports through completing tasks that corresponded with different Chinese cities. For the Beijing section, attendees learned about Beijing Opera. Students prepared posters before the festival and taught attendees about the Opera and the different Opera masks. For the stamp corresponding with Shanghai, participants learned basic greetings and phrases in Chinese, which were taught by student volunteers. On the last stop of the activity, attendees earned a stamp from Xi’an after they learned about Chinese calligraphy, and had the chance to write their name in Chinese. Attendees who finished all three stops of the scavenger hunt had the opportunity to make their own Chinese-style paper cutting. During the event, students used Chinese language to communicate with people and enhance their understanding of Chinese culture. As a result of the event, those in attendance gained a better understanding of Chinese culture and more students were motivated to learn Chinese.
The purpose of the project was educate the surrounding community on some of the most interesting and fun aspects of Chinese culture, such as Peking opera and Chinese history. The event attracted about 3,800 visitors and was covered in by several media outlets.