Ferris State University has always prided itself on rep­re­sent­ing stu­dents from all dif­fer­ent races and eth­nic­i­ties. But for Chinese stu­dents at FSU, yes­ter­day was the first time that Chinese New Year was offi­cially cel­e­brated on campus.

“We’re try­ing to cre­ate aware­ness of the fact that it is Chinese New Year. We have a grow­ing pop­u­la­tion of Chinese stu­dents on cam­pus and want to give them the oppor­tu­nity to share their cul­ture and this time of cel­e­bra­tion. They’ve been very excited about this,” Study Abroad & National Student Exchange Manager Tara Braun said.

Actual Chinese New Year began Jan. 23, and the cel­e­bra­tion will con­tinue for 15 days.

Each day, var­i­ous events or tra­di­tions take place. For exam­ple, the first day is one to meet with fam­ily and elders. The last day is the Lantern Festival, where those who cel­e­brate eat var­i­ous tra­di­tional Chinese dishes. The event at Ferris wasn’t aimed at any par­tic­u­lar day, but rather hoped to encom­pass var­i­ous ele­ments of the new year and its traditions.

The cel­e­bra­tion, efforts of the Chinese stu­dent reg­is­tered stu­dent orga­ni­za­tion, took place in the Rankin Center Dome room yes­ter­day. It included four tables: one teach­ing cal­lig­ra­phy, another on the lan­guage, one on tra­di­tions, and one on paper cut­ting. There was also food from New China restau­rant and stu­dents doing kung fu and singing. A pro­fes­sional pipa player was also hired for the event.

Xiaohua Li, Chinese inter­na­tional stu­dent and pres­i­dent of the Chinese RSO, came to Ferris two years ago from south of Beijing. Her first year at FSU was spent study­ing English as a sec­ond lan­guage, and her sec­ond year is in pre-dental hygiene. One of the things Li was so excited about was to be able to intro­duce Chinese New Year to those beyond the Chinese stu­dent population.

“The Chinese stu­dents cel­e­brate by our­selves. If we live in the dorms we make dumplings,” Li said. “We want to remem­ber our tra­di­tions in China and we also really want to share with a lot of friends about the Chinese cul­ture. We want a lot of peo­ple to know about China.”

Li hasn’t been home since she came to FSU two years ago, so cel­e­brat­ing the new year also brings com­fort through com­mu­nity and shared traditions.

“We have a lot of new Chinese stu­dents and we want to cel­e­brate the hol­i­day together because we miss our fam­ily and we want to share our cul­ture with peo­ple and friends from other coun­tries,” said Li.

Despite her enjoy­ment of immers­ing her­self in a com­pletely dif­fer­ent cul­ture, Li has met some challenges.

“I think I enjoy stay­ing here for study­ing and meet­ing dif­fer­ent cul­tured friends. But the first time I came here it was really hard for my lan­guage study. Sometimes I can­not speak and if I want to say some­thing I don’t know how to explain it by myself,” Li said.

But Li has seen the chal­lenges as a learn­ing expe­ri­ence, and in addi­tion to her excite­ment of shar­ing her own hol­i­day and tra­di­tions, has appre­ci­ated learn­ing about other cultures.

“In America they include a lot of cul­tures so it’s kind of fun to cel­e­brate Christmas and other hol­i­days,” Li said.

The Chinese New Year cel­e­bra­tion was made pos­si­ble thanks to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.