On June 24th, 2020, the National Central Library (NCL) held its annual Dragon Boat Festival celebration for visiting foreign scholars. The lively festival began in the afternoon at Bitan Riverside in Xindian, hosted by NCL Deputy Director-General, Ms. Ying-Mei Wu and attended by 30 foreign scholars, along with their families, from 16 different countries. Colleagues from the NCL also participated in the activity, building friendship with scholars through the dragon boat racing. In the end, medals were awarded to the dragon boat champion and iconic festival cuisine--rice dumplings were distributed to all the scholars.

Due to the recent outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, many global academic activities have been affected. However, with the pandemic situation improving in Taiwan, Center for Chinese Studies (CCS) is able to hold its first big event of this year--dragon boating. Dragon boating is not only a representative icon to the Dragon Boat Festival, but closely connected to cultural and traditional entertainment. Apart from assisting scholars with their research, CCS has arranged Lunar New Year Luncheon, Dragon Boat Festival activity and Moon Festival reunion activity for scholars, hoping scholars can enjoy Taiwanese festival culture during the stay.