Photos: UH Hilo celebrates 2019 Chinese New Year with cultural festival

The festival featured lanterns, handicrafts, zodiac sign bookmarks, paper crafts giveaways (cute pigs in celebration of the Year of the Pig!), calligraphy demonstrations, posters, lion head, martial arts performance, taiji boxing, folk dance and more for the university community to enjoy.

Photos by Raiatea Arcuri for UH Hilo Stories.
Click photos to enlarge.

The University of Hawai‘i at Hilo celebrated Chinese New Year with a Chinese Spring Festival and Lantern Festival on Feb. 11. The festival featured lanterns, handicrafts, zodiac sign bookmarks, paper crafts giveaways (cute pigs in celebration of the Year of the Pig), calligraphy demonstrations, posters, lion head, martial arts performance, taiji boxing, folk dance and more for the university community to enjoy.

The Chinese New Year event was hosted by the Chinese studies certificate program, for which Associate Professor Jiren Feng serves as the program coordinator, in association with Elementary Chinese I (CHNS 101) and Chinese Festivals and Food Culture (CHNS 320) classes he is teaching this semester. The CHNS course discusses traditional Chinese festivals and food as important aspects of Chinese culture. It also investigates the most important festivals and related customs, what food people cook and eat during the festivals, and why. In addition, the course explores popular styles of cooking in different areas and how they have shaped the diversity of Chinese people. Students interact with local Chinese restaurants or families for the cultural tradition of Chinese cuisine.

The event was also hosted by the Chinese Cultural Club for which Feng serves as the faculty advisor.

Read about Associate Professor Feng’s bio and research.

Click photos to enlarge:

Raiatea Arcuri is a professional photographer majoring in business at UH Hilo.