In a cafeteria decorated by red lanterns and tables covered in food, students and community members gathered on Feb. 13 to celebrate Lunar New Year. Every year, the Chinese club, currently led by co-presidents and seniors Amanda Cai (she/her) and Wendy Barben (any pronouns), organizes a potluck for the most widely celebrated holiday in Asia. This is the second year they collaborated with AAPI club, led by co-presidents and seniors Bobae Park and Emma Choi (she/her), to host a lively event.
“Since I’m Chinese, I grew up with, to some extent, Chinese culture and traditions — like we would celebrate Chinese New Year,” Cai said. “We’d get red envelopes, you’d have nian ye fan (New Year’s Eve dinner) and things like that. And I think being able to bring that to Inglemoor and give other students a similar experience where we all come together, have a really nice meal, celebrate the New Year, things like that — I really think that’s a really good experience.”
Barben said it was nice to feel a sense of family and community at the potluck. When they were younger, their family would make dumplings and decorate the house together.
“I haven’t been able to celebrate it properly in a while because I used to celebrate it more thoroughly because my grandparents were here, but they moved back to China,” Barben said.
Choi said that having grown up in an area in the Midwest that had a large Asian population, she grew accustomed to numerous cultural celebrations, particularly those for Korean New Year.
“When I came to Washington, I saw a lot less of (Lunar New Year celebrations), so I think it’s really valuable that Inglemoor is holding it,” Choi said. “It made me really happy that there were a lot of Asians and that a lot of the parents came. It was really cute because they’re supporting the community.”
Due to a string of snow days and issues with catering, the celebration was delayed from its original date of Feb. 7. Other challenges included communication between the hosting clubs. Cai said one of her top priorities this year was providing enough food.
“In previous years, we’ve always run out of food and people would show up quite hungry, expecting to get a full meal, and they would end up going home, maybe not exactly hungry, but not full either,” Cai said.
The event ended with an abundance of leftovers. The evening also featured a variety of cultural performances such as poetry readings, singing, violin performances and lion dancing by students in Chinese teacher Li Haining’s classes. There was also a guest performance of the traditional Chinese instruments guzheng, erhu and hulusi by community member Qinyi Gui.
For Cai, food was not only a top priority but also her favorite part of the celebration, and not just because it was delicious. Since her parents immigrated to the United States, Cai is unable to have a New Year’s Eve dinner with her extended family each year. Instead, her family friends congregate and bring dishes from all over China that they specialize in.
“You really get to taste a little bit of different provinces’ food,” Cai said. “I think at Inglemoor, you get a similar experience, except you get quite a bit broader. You get people with different degrees of experience of Chinese culture from different backgrounds, different areas of China. I think that’s really cool to be able to just bring it all together.”
