4th Annual Chinese Food and Culture Festival at LCS

On Friday, February 12th, Lakefield College School held its fourth annual Chinese Food and Culture Festival. This year, the festival overlapped with the Lunar New Year, making for an even more exciting celebration.

With LCS students representing over 45 different countries, our community is truly a global one. Sharing and learning from each other, about our different perspectives and important cultural traditions, is one of the many benefits of having such a diverse community. It builds our understanding, strengthens common values, and deepens our connection as a community. 

Students were especially excited to take part in the Chinese Food and Culture Festival given the unusual year we’ve been having and the many safety protocols in place that restrict our ability to gather. Although the festival looked different from previous years, students were able to come together safely with their house families, to share a meal, decorate for the Lunar New Year, and learn about Chinese culture and history. 

The festivities began during the day when students shared a Lunar New Year themed snack of oranges (a traditional Lunar New Year treat), authentic sweets, crackers, and drinks. Students also learned about the history of the Lunar New Year and Chinese Culture, practiced making paper lanterns, and participated in the traditional activity of riddle solving. Students who celebrate the Lunar New Year shared their personal experiences and traditions with their peers.

In the evening, students participated in Chinese New Year House decorating, adorning their houses with paper lanterns, streamers, and messages written in Chinese. There was a lot of enthusiasm with twelve houses competing in the decorating competition throughout the early evening. Everyone did a great job, and Wadsworth House was announced as the winner! 

Students also participated in relay races by house family. Maxwell Lu ’21 and members of the Senior Leadership Class helped to organize the Timed House Relay Race Challenge in the gym. Ryder House took the lead, and was the winner in this event.  

Following these activities, an authentic Chinese cuisine was enjoyed by all. Although LCS parents were not able to join us on campus for the festivities this year, many of our local parents delivered items to the school for our students and staff to enjoy. The dinner menu was planned by parents on the Chinese Food and Culture Committee and was prepared by local Chef, Cindy Li.  

Our students really enjoyed the opportunity to share a meal together. "Being able to celebrate a tradition from my home country with my friends here at LCS is great. It makes me feel at home," said one happy LCS student. Another said, “I enjoyed sharing the food and games that I like with my friends.” 

After dinner,  students and staff gathered for a fireworks display at the waterfront coupled with an evening Sparkler skate.  

Overall, the day was a big success. So many students expressed their gratitude and shared their positive experiences. Shirley Li ‘21 said, “I think more students came to enjoy the event in the gym than in the past. At the calligraphy station, students had fun trying out the Chinese traditional writing method. Many students were curious about the characters and asked me how to write it. It was great to go back to my house to see the common room decorated and to have the opportunity to enjoy the dinner with my friends."

This year’s Chinese Food and Culture Festival was another great success. It allowed us to come together as  students and staff within our house families, for some of us, to open ourselves up to new experiences and tastes, and for others, to share important traditions that remind us of home.  The day simply would not have been possible without the support of our parents and student volunteers. Thank you to our student volunteers for leading activities and decorating:  

Dylan Clement ’21

James Wu ’21

Jenny Zhu ’21

Shirley Li ’21

Nicole Liu ’21

Scott Doggett ’21 

Edward Chen ’21 

Maxwell Lu ’21 

Miles Mei ’23 

Jack Freeman ’21 

Catie Dobson ’21 

Matt Northey ’21 

Wellesley Yu ’21 

Lily Bowman ’21 

 

A special thanks to staff Garret Hart and Tim Rollwagen for setting off the fireworks. 

Thank you to our incredible LCS parents who worked diligently over numerous days to help provide an incredible experience: 

Amy Gao P’21 

Bella Wang P’23 

Cloris Tai P’21

Finally, and notably, this festival would not have been possible without the generous financial support of our LCS Families. Their support of this event contributes so much to our community, and we are grateful for their generosity. Thanks to the following families:

 

Hang Yu and Qingyan Tai P'21

Yi'ai Chen and Wei Jiang P'21

Feilin Huang and Yanpei Xu P'21

Dongpeng Li and Hengfeng Wen P'21

Vincent Zheng and Claire Shan P'21

Honghua Chen and Lijuan Sun P'22

Xiang Hu and Wei Cong P'21

Weifeng Huang and Suzan Fei P'22

Eric Lam and Cynthia Cheng P'21

Zhiping Li and Fang Wang P'22

Hui Liao and Shuyan Chen P'22

Zuofeng Wang and Vivian Chen P'22

Zhoumin Yue and Min Hu P'21

Yingpeng and Jasmine Zhang P'22

Gang Cai and Min Lu P'23

Jianwu Liang and Cynthia Qian P'23

Yuan Mei and Bella Wang P'23

Hui Sun and Yue Ding P'23

Bo Tao and Hui Liu P'23

Wenquan Wu and Qiushi Zhang P'21

Ruihui Yu and Limin Jin P'23

Zhenyu Zhang and Na Mei P'23

Feng Hong and Kiki Shi P'24

Jianping Wu and Jie Zhang P'24

Dalong Wen and Haiying Xie P'24

Michael Huang and Amanda Ren P'24

Wenbiao Yang and Yongtong Zhang P'23

Cindy Zhang P'23

Yijun Lu and Xu Yang P'22

Cien Zhuang P'22