Golden rooster announces abundance; colorful phoenix indicates harmony. Staff used decorations such as Chinese character Fu, couplets, red velvet firecrackers, lucky bags and pod pepper, which were in ‘Chinese red’, to welcome the first New Year since International Campus’ official opening. On December 31th, the Residential College made elaborate preparations for the activity of ‘New Year Carnival Night—Experiencing Chinese folk snack’. Ying Yibin, Vice President of ZJU and Executive Vice Dean of International Campus, Fu Qiang, Assistant President of ZJU and Vice Dean of International Campus, other leaders of International Campus and the students welcomed and celebrated the arrival of Year 2017 together.
When talking about Chinese New Year traditional food, the first thing people think of are dumplings. Coupled with spring rolls, rice cakes and Tangyuan, the ‘gluttonous feast’ in the Residential College was made up. Because just tasting food was not enough to inspire everyone’s passion for the festival, the staff specially prepared colorful dough and two kinds of meat for the teachers and students to make different kinds of colored dumplings by themselves.
The participation of foreign students was absolutely essential in International Campus. The boy Wunjo from Germany and the girl Roxana from Italy both made their first dumpling in this activity. Taking full account of various dietary habits in different cultures, staff prepared vegetarian dumplings in advance for part of the teachers and students to fully respect each member’s habits and customs.
No matter dumplings or the other folk snacks are the epitomes of China traditional culture. In International Campus where the Chinese and foreign cultures exchange and collide, this activity of ‘Experiencing Chinese folk snacks’ not only provides a precious chance for the foreign students to know more about Chinese culture, but a rare experience for the Chinese students to regain the national traditional culture.
