During the Spring Festival of 2012, over 40 international students of Shandong University coming from 30 countries gathered in Zhoucun, situated in the central area of Shandong Province.
On New Year’s Eve, the international students visited Zhoucun, put up Spring Couplets, made dumplings, had New Year Eve’s dinner and, exploded fireworks. The next day, they dressed in traditional Chinese clothes and watched folk-custom activities such as the Land Boat Dance, Racedonkey Dance and the Lion dance.
“I love Chinese culture, and being here informed me what it means to celebrate the Chinese New Year. I learned how to wish others a happy new year. That was really interesting.” Ma Bo from Botswana said in Chinese.
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This year, Zhoucun held an activity titled “the foreigners are here to spend the traditional Chinese New Year” under the theme of “visit Zhoucun, enjoy your New Year.” SDU international students have spent three Spring Festivals in a row with the natives. The students not only experienced the Lu culture and Shang culture, Chinese traditional culture, but also enjoyed Chinese people’s passion, which left them warm feeling at home in their new surroundings.
Written by: Li Ruicen
Photo by: Sun Yunhang
Edited by: Lawrence Phillips, Jing Zizhao