On the afternoon on July 26, 2023, the College of International Education organized an online event for international students to share the Chinese culture of summer heat avoidance and introduced them to interesting summer life in the past and present and relevant tips.
The Sharing Session first introduced the concept of summer heat avoidance to the international students. Ancient people adopted various ways to avoid summer heat, such as “food for summer heat avoidance” mentioned in the Book of Rites of the Han Dynasty, “summer resort” in the Tang Dynasty, and “air-conditioning well” in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Ancient people also built water pavilions (rain pavilions) for cooling, as Tang Yu Lin Volume 5 records that the Royal Historian Wang’s “residence has a rain pavilion with waters flowing down from the eaves, and one staying in it in hot summer days can experience autumn cool”. During the Song Dynasty, rain pavilions were constructed more luxuriously and upgraded into a cool hall. The Sharing Session also introduced the famous summer resorts in China, including Shangri-La in Yunnan Province, Jiulian Mountain in Longnan, Jiangxi Province, and Dingxi in Gansu Province.
The Sharing Session presented the ancient ways to “avoid summer heat” in a vivid and interesting way, enhancing the international students’ understanding of Chinese summer culture. The hot summer is a good time to slow down the pace of study, so that international students can spend their summer time enjoying different sceneries of China, experience different cultures and find their own “cool” places.
Written by: Zhang Ruyi
Screenshot by: Zhang Ruyi
Reviewed By: Chen Wei
