Sixteen foreign experts and their family members experienced how locals celebrate the Spring Festival, the Chinese New Year, at Lingering Garden, a renowned classical Chinese garden in Suzhou, on February 6.

The event, organized by Suzhou Science and Technology Bureau, introduced the city’s folk customs in the most important festival for Chinese, such as writing spring couplets and having a tour of the garden.

Juliet from Nigeria has lived in Suzhou for about two years. She was very interested in learning to write Chinese character Fu (fortune) with an ink brush on a piece of red paper like a professional calligrapher. Now a researcher at Business School, Soochow University, she said this is her first time to learn about Chinese culture in this way.

After living in Suzhou for over eight years, Saartje from Brazil said the Spring Festival was usually a time that the city seemed to be empty as many returned to their hometowns. But this year, many people have stayed put to help control the pandemic and many businesses are still open.

For Emily, she is more impressed by the food culture, especially customs for the dinner on New Year’s Eve. Fish is a must-have dish on the dinner menu, but people will keep some left over because fish sounds like 'surplus' in Chinese and people always like to have a surplus at the end of the year, believing they can make more in the next year.

Suzhou has a long history and its ancient city walls, towns, and gardens are all very impressive to Hyojin Kim, who has just moved to the city from South Korea not long ago. “It’s very lucky for me to attend this great event and I look forward to the Spring Festival celebration in this nice city.”

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