St. Paul’s students celebrated the Lunar New Year with a Saturday night celebration and a Lunar New Year chapel. Both of the festivities, which have been in the works since the middle of the fall term, were a collaboration between the students of the Chinese program and members of the Chinese Society. Head of the Languages Department Jenny Li says the vision for the Lunar New Year celebrations and the Chinese program as a whole is to bring together students who are learning Chinese with international students who are native speakers. “I think the Chinese international students and students who are learning Chinese are both precious resources at SPS,” says Li.
Saturday’s event in Raffini kicked off with an enthusiastic countdown from a large audience, and the program went on to include performances from all of the Chinese classes, as well as performances from individuals in Chinese Society. Peter Ding ‘26, a member of the Chinese Society who performed Kung Fu with Chinese Society Head Hudson Stovall ‘24, says he volunteered to perform “to spread awareness about our culture and to have people see more about our culture than what’s commonly known.”
For the first time, the Lunar New Year celebration also included presentations from Korean Society, Japanese Society, and JSEA about other countries’ New Year traditions. “The aim of Saturday night’s event was to host an international and not a solely China-focused Lunar New Year celebration,” said Teacher of Chinese Paul Murray. “This year’s event marked a significant stride towards a more global and community-oriented event. I’m inspired by the potential that this year showed for even greater festivities in the future.”
The food at the event was also a highlight, with the execution requiring hard work from many students. Chinese Seminar student Raen Kao ‘24 spent most of the day preparing bubble tea for the event, as bubble tea is a dessert their family regularly makes. “I’m the only Taiwanese student as far as I know, and bubble tea comes from Taiwan,” says Kao. Many Chinese program students, including Kao, also participated in making dumplings at Sheldon.
The Chapel performance required even more time from the students and faculty participating, with performances from Chinese program students, Chinese Society, and the orchestra. Li says that she had always hoped for a collaboration between the performing arts program and the Chinese program, and she was very grateful to Chinese Society Heads Jenny Qu ‘25 and Enoch Huang ‘25 for spearheading it. “I appreciate all the students and Mr. Pandolfi in the orchestra, who did a beautiful job. This is taking us to the next level of togetherness,” says Li. “I know the Chinese kids felt happy about it, but I’m also so grateful for the students not from Asia for celebrating with us.”
Both events were filled with energy, with many students saying that the performance was their favorite Chapel program of the year. “The planning is a lot of work, but it’s very exciting, because this is such a big celebration for us,” says Qu.
Kao agrees that the time they contributed to the events was worth it. “I’m really happy with how Chinese New Year is celebrated here,” Kao says. “I think it’s really sweet that the program does this for both its students and for the international kids. The amount of effort that Mrs. Li and Mr. Murray spent on organizing this has been incredible, and I’m really thankful that we have this opportunity to celebrate.”