Culture in Action (CIA) is one of the work programs from the CCU-LM department in SAFEL that aims to introduce members and crews of SAFEL to foreign culture and language from a particular country. This event gives the participants chances to experience the culture directly; that’s why we call it Culture in Action. This year, the CIA brought the theme “Epicurean Expedition: Taste the Wonders of China and Beyond.” We are focusing on learning and exploring Chinese culture, especially the food.
CIA 2023 was held on Sunday, October 8, 2022, in Student Center Hall, floor 3, Yogyakarta State University. There are a lot of fun activities, like sharing sessions, cooking demonstrations, folding the dumplings, and game sessions. We invited Arkanza and Swastamita as our special guests. Both of them are Indonesian-language students who are currently doing a transfer credit semester at UNY. They are from the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies in China. Arkanza gives us a fun and amazing sharing session about Chinese food, while Swastamita helps us with the cooking demonstration. After the cooking demonstration, participants are given a chance to try folding the dimsum that we have prepared. They feel happy about that, but sadly, the dimsum is not edible because the filling was spoiled. We are truly sorry for that, but most of the participants are still having fun at this event, as they said on the feedback board.
The next item on the agenda is a Guess the Food game session. Led by Shasa, participants are having fun trying to guess the description of certain Chinese foods. The fastest person who raises their hand has a chance to get on the stage and try to answer it. If they correct, they will get a special gift. Participants are so excited about this game. After playing the game, participants were given two sticky notes for writing impressions and feedback for Arkanza and Swastamita. The last item on the agenda is giving souvenirs to the speakers, Arkanza and Swastamita, a certificate, and a mini Wayang.
Overall, Culture in Action 2023 was successful because it already fulfilled the quantitative target of 38/50 participants coming to the event and also fulfilled the qualitative target where participants could learn and gain new insight about foreign culture and language. It was a blast, and we are having so much fun. See you at Culture in Action 2024! Xie xie
-Luluk Fitriyani
