During the first day of the Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, people all around China launch fireworks, eat traditional foods such as jiaozi, nian gao and play board games. People decorate their houses, light incense and celebrate what is largely considered to be the biggest Chinese holiday.
And Chinese students at N.C. State sit — thousands of miles away.
“It’s something like Christmas in [the United States],” Alice Dai, a freshman in engineering, said. “Families have dinner together and there’s a big show on TV. And when it’s 12 o’clock, we light off fireworks. And the children will get gifts and money from their parents.”
Although many Chinese students missed celebrating the big holiday in their hometowns, many of them found ways to make up for it in North Carolina.
Students of the CSSFA — Chinese Students and Scholars Friendship Association — held a Spring Festival celebration at Talley Student Center on Sunday. Students, scholars and community members marked the occasion with dance, singing and instrumental performances, along with games, skits and Chinese food.
“[The Spring Festival] is a really good time to meet with our friends and celebrate our country and culture,” Tracey Yuan, a junior in civil engineering and mathematics and CSSFA vice president, said. “We can think about home and can talk to our friends about it here.”
CSSFA helps Chinese students at N.C. State adjust and acclimate to the American culture, said Bo Yang, graduate student in civil engineering and CSSFA president.
“CSSFA is very helpful for the students and gives them a lot of opportunities,” JinYuan Zhang, a PhD candidate in chemistry, said. “It’s a way for them to meet a lot of people and to develop friendships here. It’s a very useful organization.”
However, Yuan said she found more to CSSFA than just an organization.
“It’s more like a family,” Yuan said.
With many things in common, Chinese students and scholars also find the organization to be a good place to network in a new country.
“We have a lot of things to do [such as] share ideas, presentations and activities,” Dai said. “We are all foreign students from China, so when we [feel homesick], we can all feel sick together.”
Not only does CSSFA help N.C. State Chinese students meet other students, it helps them get more comfortable with the United States, Yang said. CSSFA has held meetings, activities and performances to accomplish this.
“Most of the Chinese students are shy or they don’t want to talk, especially in front of many people, but I think American students can always say something,” Yang said. “There’s no problem for them to speak, but the Chinese students need the confidence to speak. So if they do CSSFA activities and performances, they will have the opportunity to gain more confidence.”
CSSFA is planning to hold elections for leader positions and is also preparing for the annual end-of-year barbeque set to take place at Lake Wheeler.
