The smell of fried dumplings filled the Austin ISD Performing Arts Center as families gathered to celebrate Chinese culture. The Austin Chinese Culture Festival took place Saturday, featuring live music, Chinese opera and dance, food vendors and interactive art activities.
Presented by the Austin Chinese-American Network, this year’s event proved significant as it coincided with ACAN’s 10-year anniversary and the Mid-Autumn Festival, an internationally celebrated Chinese holiday. The festival sold mooncakes and featured interactive stalls where attendees could make their own mooncakes, which are a key feature of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
ACAN board member Toni Huang spoke about the meaning of the Austin Chinese Culture Festival and its significance this year coinciding with the Mid-Autumn Festival.
“This is the one (time) a year I come here, meet new friends, meet old friends,” Huang said. “(The) Mid-Autumn Festival is almost like Thanksgiving in the sense that the family gets together, or even if you don’t get together, you look at the moon, they look at the moon. (We) appreciate the beauty of the moon together from different corners of the world.”
ACAN founder Peter Chao created the organization to “(serve) the community and foster Chinese culture” in Austin. After moving from Taiwan to Houston to pursue his master’s, Peter met Angela Chao, who had moved from China to do the same. The pair married and raised a family before moving to Austin and subsequently created ACAN.
“During that time, we felt that we got a lot of help from the local community,” Angela said. “So when we became more (financially stable) … we (felt the) need to give back. … We don’t want our second generation (to be) embarrassed by where they came from, … they should be proud of it.”
Peter said the Chinese Culture Festival was in line with their mission at ACAN, wanting “everyone (to) understand the beauty of Chinese culture.” The festival included a variety of aspects of Chinese culture, with activities like tea-tasting, the board game Go and calligraphy available to attendees from all cultural backgrounds. Additionally, the festival displayed artworks of Chinese myths and legends as well as calligraphy scripts created by students.
The festival utilizes volunteers and students from high schools across Austin; they’ve established relationships with St. Andrews, Headwaters, Westwood, and the Liberal Arts and Science Academy. Huang said she aims to connect with UT students to broaden their community impact.
“A lot of our kids, they come back. They go to UT, they still come back,” Huang said. “We would love some ideas like, ‘How do we participate in UT’s language (program)?’ … Every year, we host events like this. It’s been 10 years. We would love to see UT students (here).”
After ten years of the festival, Huang hopes it continues to expand into more communities and neighborhoods.
“We started with our own community,” Huang said. “But it’s time to take it to the next level.”
