When you walk through the hallways, you might see some red papers with golden Mandarin writing on them. Those are called “red envelopes” and are made by the Chinese Club for Lunar New Year and are a symbol of good fortune (like peace and prosperity). They are used to convey good wishes and blessings for the coming year.
Junior Ophelia Oglesby, one of the club’s co-presidents is in charge of the organization of the club. She explained what she likes the most about the club.
“You have a community of people that really love Chinese food and the culture,” Oglesby said.
The other co-president junior Deny Lopez also said what she likes the most about the club.
“Everyone is very friendly, and there is always a great understanding between each other,” Lopez said.
If you really enjoy eating Chinese food, they usually order food from HK CAFE and have lunch together and then share their opinion about the food they ate.
However, they don’t only order food. If you are interested in making food, the club also does that. Lopez explained one of the dishes they cooked in the past months.
“For the new year, we made dumplings by hand, we made the filling and we made everything and wrapped them up,” Lopez said.
Speaking or learning Chinese is also something that they do during their meetings. They do what they call “the word of the week” where they pick a Chinese character related to current events and they study it. They recently learned how to say “Happy New Year” for the Chinese New Year.
For the next few months, the club is also trying to plan a field trip to visit a Chinese garden together.
Another aspect of the Chinese culture that the club is trying to develop is watching movies. For example, they watched The Joy Luck Club, The New Year’s Eve of Old Lee, and Crazy Rich Asians.
There are many things that the club does to connect to Chinese culture. If you decide to join their community, you will watch movies to get closer to the culture and to learn more about it. You will also could learn some Chinese words or expressions in relation to current events. If you like food, you will be in the right place because you will order it and cook together. Finally, you will meet new people with which you will share your love for Chinese culture and create great memories together.
