Christmas day is usually a memorable and fun filled time for most foreign students, as it signifies an avenue for them to ease off from the tension of their studies and share happy time together with their friends. As such, on the 23rd of December 2014, some foreign students with their teachers from the School of Pharmacy, Jiangsu University had a unique experience in festive season. They drank herbal tea and recognized the beneficial effects of Chinese herbs. The event was tagged celebrating “Chinese-style Regimen” on Christmas day. This special celebration added interest and fun to their oversea life in China.
Pharmacognosy teacher Jinyi Wan opened the floor of the discussion and explained on the knowledge about medicinal herbs to the foreign student sat a classroom in the School of Pharmacy. She brought along with her several medicinal herbs teas like jujube, Chinese wolfberry tea, chrysanthemum honey tea, also in her show case were a few Chinese medicine specimens. Wan said ,“Although the international students major in Pharmaceutical Science, most of them are not familiar with Chinese herbs”. She then concluded from the expression she observed from the students that ‘‘The magical effects of the traditional herbal medicines arouse their curiosity”.
“These little Chinese wolfberries have so many beneficial effects!”that was the resounding response from Melody, a student from Zimbabwe carrying some Chinese wolfberries in her hands. She was amazed at her new knowledge that some herbs could be used both as medicine and food.
Another student Omari from Ghana has been interest in China cultureever since he was a child. Omari could not hide his curiosity, as such he constantly asked questions when he sighted Chinese medicine specimens brought by the teacher. He was particularly curious about identifying medicinal herbs. “These two herbs look almost the same, how do you distinguish between them?” Teacher Wan then carefully taught the students on how they could identify several medicinal herbs from characters.
The meeting came to a close with each foreign student receiving a Chinese medicine specimen as a souvenir, and they happily took a group photograph together.
