From November 24th to December 4th, the annual Fr. Franz Giet Building (FG) Week, also known as the CFL Christmas Market held by the College of Foreign Language (CFL), used the theme of Festum Medievale to highlight different FG week under the school's 60th anniversary celebration. Some events especially matched the medieval theme, such as the orchestra club performance, a short theatrical performance, and an AR game experience at the opening ceremony, as well as a Christmas art exhibition in Global Lounge (寰宇廳) with even food stalls named after medieval culture or stories.
Because the FG Week, or the CFL Christmas Market, is the annual event held closest to the Christmas holiday, it was even grander this year in light of the 60th anniversary of the Fu Jen Catholic University. “Festum Mediaevale” is based on medieval European culture and Epiphany, an important holiday in Christianity. “We want to look back on the history of Fu Jen University this year,” said the dean of the CFL, Prof. Kate Liu. The theme includes medieval knights’ stories, Vikings’ culture, and some of the famous Christmas food eaten in the Middle Ages such as Galette des Rois (King cakes).
The opening ceremony held in the Global Lounge on the first floor of the FG building attracted more people this year than previously. The orchestra club was invited by CFL to make an opening performance. “Although Game of Thrones is a conceived story, it’s well-known and has some elements of the Middle Ages. We also chose another orchestral suite related to Christmas to further enhance the Christmas spirit,” said Libby Shih, one of the people in charge of the FG week. The orchestra club had been preparing for almost a month, and the performance made people stop walking just to enjoy the performance and take photos.
The short drama performance enacted by students from the Department of Italian Language and Literature and Department of English Language and Literature continued the joyous atmosphere set by the Christmas orchestral suite. The performance was based on the Three Wise Man, and adapted into a funnier version, catering to the medieval storytelling style when the stories were presented more humorously. This year’s unique theatrical performance produced a lot of laughter in the audience as intended.
The Christmas Art Exhibition near the language self-learning room could be easily seen thanks to the architectural design and the transparent glass wall of the FG building. The starry sky picture at the bottom was designed by a team of digital marketing and internship students from the College of Foreign Languages, and the other eight major paintings were designed by the dean and Alyson Wang, the person in charge of the Christmas Art Exhibition. The whole exhibition was inspired by famous medieval paintings such as The Bean Feast and Illustration of Green Knight’s Arrival to connect with the theme of Festum Medieval. “For example, there are two of the pictures related to Christmas, others are related to medieval elements and culture, such as unicorn, which is considered as a medieval sacred symbol,” said Wang.
Alyson Wang introduced the VR Games. Photo by Esther Wang.
Medieval themed VR games made by students were also available at the opening ceremony. With the guidance of Professor Lynn Zhou, medieval characteristics and traditions were presented vividly and interactively. One group created a game based on the painting Viking Ship by Alex Tornberg. “Learning VR games is a hard-won opportunity. I found it interesting and fun knowing how to produce it,” said the team leader Alvin Lin. “Our main goal is to introduce the Yule, which is kind of like the Vikings’ Christmas, and how it is different from the Christmas we know,” Lin added. Some students revealed that making VR games is actually very hard. One group member, Eric Chang, said, “the logic of designing characters is the most difficult. For example, there is a scene in the game where the original gameplay is to avoid the sight of Non-Player Characters (NPCs), but because of the program can’t provide a function that could detect the player’s position, so we have to change it to other methods, such as avoiding the touch of NPCs.”
Students were introducing their VR Games. Photo by Esther Wang.
“I think this year is better than last year. The whole design of the game is a little bit more difficult. For example, there is a scene where the task is to find required elements to move onto the next part of the game. Although the game is quite hard, like the hiding objects are not easy to find, they are very memorable,” said Michelle Fan, one of the people who played VR games this year and last year. In addition, the FJU English Self Learning Center took this opportunity to combine AR games with self-learning points, making learning English more interesting and meaningful. The murals in the seating area were also designed by students at the CFL.
The school also invited many external vendors to set up food stalls in front of the FG building. To blend the food stalls with the Medieval Europe-themed Christmas Market, CFL decided to give each food stall a Medieval themed name. For instance, there are “Spartan Mochi,” “Germanic Brown Sugar Milk,” and “Constantine Sweet Potato.”
Food stalls in front of the FG building. Photo by Esther Wang.
As for the students' food stalls, each department had local specialties from different countries to sell. For instance, the English Department invited everyone to enjoy scones and hot chocolate on a cold Saturday, the same day as FJU’s anniversary celebration. The French Department sold the King Cakes, which was also the feature product of the Christmas Market this year since as a common dessert in the middle ages. In addition, CFL also offered pre-ordered featured products of six departments and sold them on Shopee, enabling the school to promote the Christmas market and allowing customers to learn more about exotic dishes and different countries’ specialties such as German Christmas Gingerbread Men Cookies and Japanese Hokkaido cheese cod filet. The total number of orders reached more than 200.