International students welcome the semester with dumplings and fun

After resting at home for the Christmas break, international students at St. Thomas University reconnected with old friends by celebrating the Chinese New Year and the beginning of second semester. 

Singyi Chua, an international student from Malaysia, taught students and staff how to make dumplings. Chua said dumplings are a go-to dish for the Chinese New Year. 

“People will eat it is a symbol of fortune for the new year,” said Chua. 

Chua is the Asia ambassador for the St. Thomas University International Students’ Association. She said dumplings are stuffed with tofu and cabbage or pork and cabbage. 

“The pork one is the iconic one,” she said. 

She said other Chinese New Year traditions include staying late with family and playing board games. 

“The latest you stay up, the older your parents are going to get, so basically all the young people will just stay up until four or five o’clock in the morning,” she said. 

For the New Year, adults give children red envelopes with money. 

“That’s what the kids love about the New Year,” she said. 

Chua said she enjoys sharing her culture with other students.  

“Your eyes open to see the world,” she said.  

Students played a trivia game where they had to guess what flag belonged to each country. The game had attendees on the edge of their seats. 

Carrie Monteith-Levesque, STU’s international student coordinator, said this was the first time the international student community at large celebrated Chinese New Year.  

Before, Chinese students would come together for a private celebration. 

“It’s really nice that this year they’re willing to share this with us,” said Monteith-Levesque. 

She said it’s important that students share their cultures with each other and celebrate diversity on campus. 

“In a world today, global citizenship and knowing more about the world and diversity and how different things can be depending on where you go, it’s so important,” she said. 

She said she would like to see more Canadian students go to international student events. 

“You can learn so much from each other’s cultures,” she said. 

Monteith-Levesque said the international student community on campus is tight-knit. 

“It’s something very unique and I like being a part of that,” she said.