Attendees mill about at the Brooklyn Mid-Autumn Festival. (Credit: Nina Auslander-Padgham)
For two teenagers, 9 a.m. on a Saturday is early. But for Connie Jiang, 16, and Angie Lee, 15, it was a necessary part of volunteering as two emcees at the Brooklyn Mid-Autumn Festival on Saturday, Sept. 19, organized by the nonprofit Better Brooklyn Association.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is based on a myth over 3,000 years old and is celebrated in East and Southeast Asian countries. In the Chinese lunisolar calendar, the holiday marks when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, coinciding with the time of autumn harvest.
To celebrate, Sunset Park-based Better Brooklyn Association organized a large parade of lion and dragon dancers to march down 10 blocks of Eighth Avenue in Brooklyn. Confetti swirled in the sunny skies and children sprayed silly string with unbridled glee. Slightly further south, at the intersection of 59th Street and Eighth Avenue, a temporary stage was erected for the more than 20 cultural groups performing. Jiang and Lee, along with adult organizers, had to work to keep the packed schedule of performers on stage in order, ensuring that each group was properly introduced.
“I was only anxious if I would have had to be the one speaking Chinese,” Jiang said.
Instead, an adult volunteer introduced each group in Mandarin, and Jiang or Lee introduced the group in English.
“It was kind of scary at first,” Lee said, “but we learned to go with the flow.”
Once the festival started, they had to adapt quickly, rearranging their prepared notes as performers arrived late or ended early.
The teens were pushed outside of their comfort zone, but according to Ling Ye, a community organizer and long-term volunteer for the Better Brooklyn Association who was interviewed by phone on Friday, Sept. 18, that was the point.
“Any opportunity for the kids to set up the festival and take charge, we let them,” Ye explained. Ye said this lets the kids grow and gain confidence in their skills and ties them to their cultural heritage. Beyond putting together large celebrations, Better Brooklyn Association also hosts community clean-up days and free community classes in subjects like math, art and Rubik’s Cube solving that are taught by high schoolers but overseen by adults.
“It makes me feel really connected to my Chinese side,” Lee said.
Along with her role as emcee, Lee also serves as the Better Brooklyn Association student manager, overseeing all of the teenage volunteers. She credits Better Brooklyn Association with improving her Chinese, and particularly in sharpening her reading skills. Due to her elevated role, she has to communicate with the adults in the organization who are often less comfortable in English. “Everytime I speak to my boss, I speak Mandarin.”
It wasn’t only about inspiring confidence and cultural connection in the teen volunteers, but for younger children as well. Children were a part of many of the cultural performances, singing duets on stage or dancing in ensembles, often while wearing traditional Chinese Hanfu outfits. A crowd favorite was a dance troupe called Little Abacus Masters where children performed a dance routine while holding an abacus in their outstretched hand. Dozens of onlookers filmed the performers on stage, swaying or singing along to the music.
After a day of introducing the performers, Jiang and Lee, along with the adult organizers of Better Brooklyn Association, finally got to go on stage after announcing the acts from the sidelines. The president of the organization, Ray Huang, thanked the crowd for attending in Mandarin, and then the group launched into a karaoke performance, passing the mic to one another as everyone swayed on stage together to the music.
“We want to show that it’s fun,” Ye, one of the organizers, said, referencing the younger generation. “It’s fun to be Chinese, it’s fun to be an immigrant, and it’s fun to be a New Yorker.”
About the author(s)
Nina Auslander-Padgham is a Brooklyn-based journalist and alumni relations professional studying at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.