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| Susan's report on Chinese new year |
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England time 3:45pm 6th February 2008, drew back the curtain on the celebration of Chinese New Year in our school library at Ashville.
We began to put out the food we had prepared earlier: spring rolls with various stuffings, and although the dumplings looked ugly, they had brought together a lot of Chinese students in industrious labor. There were also many kinds of Chinese refreshments. They filled the whole table.
The library was decorated throughout with hanging various lanterns, festoons, New Year couplets, and even the national flag of the People's Republic of China. There was such a strong atmosphere of New Year's Day.
Several minutes before 4:00 pm England time, was China time New Year's Eve; students from Mainland China, Hong Kong ..and also foreign students and teachers all came together in front of the big screen at the front of the library and finished listening to the last programme in the Spring Festival evening party – a song called “Blue and white porcelain” by Jay Zhou, then at the last minute, we did the count down with uncontainable excitement....10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5.......until 0. On the screen, the fireworks were blooming in the sky in Beijing, whilst everyone drew together shouting: Happy new year!
Immediately after, everyone started drinking and eating. Very soon, all the food on the table had gone!. We sat around listening to some students from Hong Kong reading riddles. We also listened to classmates playing the piano. We even sang the People's Republic of China national anthem together!
At the end, some students picked up the mahjong and poker we had prepared, to start the New Year's Day essential activity. Very quickly a large group had gathered together to play mahjong. We also taught students and teachers from foreign countries the various rules of playing mahjong. They also listened with relish, eager to learn.
The New Year's Day activity that originally was planned to finish at 5:00pm continued until 5:30pm.
I think, on that day, everyone happily ushered in the coming rat year of China.
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| Report on Boarders’ Chinese New Year Dinner |
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Once again the Chinese new year event proved a great success this year. The event started at 6:30pm with the whole boarding community gathering in the sixth form centre for drinks. It was an opportunity for students and teachers to catch up on each other. The meal started at 7:15pm with students starting to move into the dining hall and staff followed afterwards. Mr. Cornforth introduced me to give a brief introduction of what Chinese new year is all about. Then the whole boarding community enjoyed the fantastic buffet cooked by the catering department and each student and staff also got what is know as the ‘Red Pocket’ which resembles luck for the year. After the meal there was the film ‘Rush Hour 3’ played in the Soothill Hall and everyone enjoyed it. Overall the event is very successful this year and it would be great to see it happening again year after year.
Gary Lui |
| Students gather in celebration |
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