By CHEN XIAOSHAN and TANG WEIYI

The Fruit Festival was held in Tianjin University (TJU) on November 19, the culmination of the “Fruit Project” with fruit giving, a fruit carnival, fruit carving, a fruit feast, and a fruit buffet. The Fruit Festival is one of TJU’s traditional festivals, having been held every autumn for 15 Years. It has become more than an activity, it has become an indispensable part of campus culture and a treasured memory for faculty and students during their time at TJU.

The Fruit Festival is organized each year by the Fruit Project Committee. Sun Jianpeng, one of the directors of this voluntary student association, has been working for the festival for three years: “It is a laborious but meaningful task.” he said, “We often meet with unexpected challenges, for instance bad weather. But nobody quits.”

Before the festival, a series of related activities such as Exotic Fruit Tastings, Fruit Map Drawing and 21-Day Fun Running were held as a part of the Fruit Project, all of which encourage people to build a healthier mind and body. “With the joint efforts of the Committee and Management Service Center for Students’ Living Garden, most of these programs have been introduced to different dormitory blocks on both of the campuses. We hope that the Fruit Project can benefit as many students as possible.” said Chen Le from the Office of Student Affairs.

Fruit Giving

Each year’s giving activity attracts a great amount of attention from students as well as faculty members. At 8 o’clock on Saturday morning, the fruit distribution started. Tailei Square on Peiyang Park Campus was crowded with smiling faces, students from different schools and Colleges came constantly to the square to draw back their fruit packages, with each package including a grapefruit and a dragon fruit. As the major activity of the festival, the fruit package has become very popular among students. This year, a total of over 50,000 kilograms of grapefruits and 15,000 kilograms of dragon fruits were distributed as festival fruits, encompassing all the students on the Weijin Road Campus and Peiyang Park Campus.

The Fruit Carnival

Apart from the fruit package giving, the Committee also promoted the Fruit Carnival which consists of games, bazaars and other creative activities. A stamp would be given to each student who completed each game, and any students who collected all the stamps could receive a present. At the Peiyang Park Campus, students actively joined in fruit bowling, fruit carving as well as grapefruit tea making. There was also a small-scale bazaar for charity that combined fruits with honey. And for those at the Weijin Road Campus, they must have been impressed with the amazing experiment in grapefruit oil refining and fruit sketching. Chen Le said “We are trying to integrate artistic and scientific ideas with fruit. The festival has already set up its cultural image in Tianjin University.”

The Fruit Carnival offered a platform for all people on campus to communicate with each other and share their happiness with others. A previous member from the Fruit Project Committee said: “I think this year’s activity offers more opportunities for communication and interaction with others, and provides more creativity and fun activities for its participants.”

Originally launched in 2002, the Fruit Project is annually held in May and November focused around the concept of a healthy lifestyle with wholesome food and more exercise. Under the guiding principle of “by the students and for the students”, the project has benefited the students with fruit totaling over 1.8 million kilograms being consumed over the years.

Student Editor: SONG RUI, Editor: QIN MIAN