It’s not the kind of competition you usually see in Columbia: Mayor Darwin Hindman and MU women’s volleyball coach Wayne Kreklow racing to transfer steamed dumplings from one plate to another using chopsticks.
A little clumsy, Hindman missed one or two dumplings at the beginning but soon caught up. When it was all over, he thrust his hand excitedly into the air and laughed. He won.
The chopstick race was just one of the events at the Chinese Dumpling Festival held Friday night at Forum Boulevard Christian Church. The fundraising festival was organized by Columbia Friends of China to further promote the sister-city relationship between Columbia and Laoshan, China.
In May, Columbia signed a sister-city agreement with Laoshan, a coastal city in Shandong province. Columbia Friends of China, established in November 2005, acts as a bridge to communicate and implement exchange activities between the two cities.
Money raised at the festival will be used to support cultural, educational and economic exchange activities in both cities, said Hsiao-Mei Wiedmeyer, president of Columbia Friends of China.
“As a not-for-profit organization, we have to raise the funding to support our activities ourselves,” said Wiedmeyer. The main sources of income for the friends group are annual membership fees, occasional donations and fundraising activities.
The group aimed to raise $2,000 to $3,000 through sales of the $10 ticket for a meal, donations and a silent auction at the festival. Wiedmeyer said she had expected between 200 and 300 people, but turnout was closer to 400.
Dumplings are usually eaten in Northern China during festivals. Families make and eat them together to symbolize unification and harmony.
Before the event, 12 volunteers spent more than five hours making 3,000 dumplings filled with pork, cabbage and zucchini. In less than two hours, the 3,000 dumplings were all gone. The kitchen made more, but Wiedmeyer said organizers eventually had to close the doors because they couldn’t keep up with demand.
In addition to the food, people attending enjoyed traditional Chinese music, folk dance, artwork and a slide show of Laoshan.
Denny Donnell was one of the bidders in the silent auction. He left the event with a Chinese scroll painting, a Chinese print and a delicate hand-painted Chinese glass bottle, all with birds on them. Donnell won them for $80, $30 higher than the second bidder.
“I’m a bird lover. I think that they’re worth the money,” Donnell said. “I’m glad to make a contribution to the organization and I also got souvenirs for that.”
Next year, Columbia Friends of China hopes to bring Daoist musicians to Columbia and send local artists to Laoshan during the Qingdao Beer Festival next August. Aside from the cultural exchange, Columbia Friends of China is also looking for more educational and business exchanges.
Businesses and artists contributed to the festival by providing food, artwork and services. Annie Ji, owner of Peking Restaurant, said the event served a good purpose.
“I came from Shandong province, and that is why I am so involved in it,” said Ji, who has lived in the United States for 30 years. “It is pretty good for the sister-city relations with Laoshan in educational, economical and environmental prospects.”
Ji said she hopes part of the fund could help poor children who cannot afford education or who lack access to medicines and hospital care.
Some attendees came because of their personal connection with China. Beth Bowman said it was a good opportunity for her two adopted Chinese daughters to get to know Chinese culture. Bowman adopted her elder daughter, Chunqing Hu, in 2001 when Chunqing was 13 months old. Last year, Bowman adopted Xinqian when she was 14 months old.
“I hope that one day they could go back to China to experience more and to know much more about China than I do,” said Bowman.
John Tharp, one of the group’s board members who volunteered to pick up food from area restaurants, said it is important that Columbians get involved with the sister-city relationship.
“We need to understand each other, and culture is able to do that,” he said.