Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

On Feb. 3, more than 300 people attended the Chinese New Year celebration held at Lawrence Tech. This year, 2011, is the Year of the Rabbit.

This event was co-sponsored by Hua Xia Association and the Division of Student Affairs.  It is the most important day for Chinese people, just like Christmas is an important day for many Americans.

Student Chen-Pei Shang distributed a red envelope stuffed with candy to everyone who entered the Real Food on Campus (RFoC) cafeteria.  Giving the red envelope is a tradition when Chinese New Year comes around, and the purpose is to wish people a healthy and happy new year.

It was an honor to invite Provost Maria Vaz, Dean of Students Kevin Finn, Student Government President Dustin Franklin, and Ting-Jun Xie, vice president of Hua Xia Association to greet and welcome everyone to the celebration.

The program included other students from China sharing some information.  Zhao-Long Wang and Yang Jiao explained Chinese culture and the different menu items being served.  In order to experience the “real hometown taste,” this year the food came from not only the RFoC, but also from a local restaurant, Royal Buffet, located in Farmington Hills.

Some of the dishes were pepper beef, fried seafood, pepper shrimp, Guang Dong vegetable, sago (Chinese traditional sweet soup) and roasted duck (one of the famous Chinese dishes when people visit China) in hopes of everyone having a happy Rabbit Year.

In addition, a video of traditional Chinese culture and greetings by Lawrence Technological University students was shown while everyone enjoyed a delicious lunch.

Later that afternoon the Hua Xia Association arranged for a game to be played in the Atrium.  Participants had only two minutes to use chopsticks to pick up uncooked rice and transfer it grain by grain to another dish.  At the end of the two minutes the winner was the one with the most rice grains.  The winner and two runner-up participants could choose gifts first.  Eventually, everybody received gifts that were provided by the University. At the end of the day, Chinese New Year celebration had finally come to a happy ending.

The Hua Xia Association and the Division of Student Affairs wishes everyone a healthy and happy Chinese new year!! …Happy Rabbit Year!!

– Yvonne Yang, President of Hua Xia Association

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