Same moon, different shores: Chinese and Ghanaian children mark Mid-Autumn Festival together

When it was early Wednesday morning in Accra, the capital and largest city of Ghana, it was already mid-afternoon in Deqing, a county in east China's Zhejiang Province. But for hundreds of children connected by a video screen, the distance didn't matter: They were looking forward to the same full moon.  

The "Books Across Mountains and Seas, Hearts Toward the Future" program – a cloud classroom and reading-promotion initiative jointly launched by the library of Zhejiang University of Technology, the Deqing County Library and the Confucius Institute at the University of Ghana (CIUG) – was launched at the Deqing County Library on Wednesday. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of China-Africa diplomatic relations and the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges. 

Bilingual children's books on Chinese mythology and traditional festivals collected from the public were handed to pupils at the basic school affiliated with the University of Ghana, where a "Chinese Reading Corner," built with support from the two Chinese libraries, was officially inaugurated. With the slogan "Online classes, offline books," the reading corner is designed as the in-person companion to the Confucius Institute's cloud classroom, giving Ghanaian children a window into China that stays open after each lesson ends. 

On the big screen in Deqing, a Chinese university student read aloud from a postcard she was sending to Ghana: "Dear friends in Ghana, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!" Some postcards carried reading reflections; others described the lakes and bamboo hills of her hometown, which sits at the foot of Moganshan. From Accra, Ghanaian pupils also wrote their replies for their Chinese friends. Culture traveled in both directions. 

Earlier in the session, the teacher introduced the story behind the Mid-Autumn Festival – the legend of Chang'e, the woman who flew to the moon, and the tradition of sharing mooncakes. Ghanaian children then tried their hands at making tuanshan, traditional Chinese round fans decorated with beads, patterns and tassels, following step-by-step video guidance from a Deqing librarian. 

In the future, a rolling program of cross-border reading promotion, online cultural workshops and youth exchanges built around Chinese cultural traditions – such as the 24 solar terms and festivals – is on the agenda, building a bridge for international cultural exchange. For the children watching the screen in both China and Ghana, though, the summary was simpler: On Mid-Autumn Day, however far apart, the moon is full everywhere.