Lantern Festival Cultural Activity

As the spring semester of 2026 began, international students of the Class of 2024 returned to campus from around the world, while the Class of 2025 experienced the Chinese New Year festivities for the first time in China.

To further promote the international dissemination of China’s outstanding traditional culture and to inspire international students to embark on their new semester’s learning journey with enthusiasm, the International Education Center successfully held a themed cultural event titled “Clever Hands Bloom, Joyful Lantern Festival” on March 3. More than 50 international students from 19 countries experienced the charm of traditional Chinese festivals through mortise-and-tenon handicrafts and lantern riddle guessing. Through “learning by doing,” they enhanced their Chinese expression skills, adding multicultural vitality to the college’s finance and economics exchange platform.

At the start of the event, Wang Lei, Deputy Director of the International Education Center, extended festive greetings to everyone. She noted that the Lantern Festival embodies the beautiful meanings of reunion and prayer, and that this event was both a tribute to traditional festivals and a warm beginning to the new semester. She encouraged the international students, while making lanterns and guessing riddles, to appreciate the ingenuity and warmth of Chinese culture, to turn the festive hopes into motivation for the new semester’s studies, and to achieve growth and progress on the college’s finance and economics exchange platform.

Under the guidance of teachers, the international students used mortise-and-tenon structures as the core to build wooden lantern frames, paste rice paper shades, and incorporate riddle cards and paper-cut decorations into their creations. From precisely joining mortise-and-tenon components to meticulously decorating the lanterns, every step reflected the wisdom of traditional Chinese craftsmanship. The students came from 19 countries, including Sierra Leone, Algeria, Botswana, Cambodia, and Egypt. Students from diverse cultural backgrounds collaborated and communicated, making the Lantern Festival culture a bond connecting multiple civilizations. The completed lanterns were hung in the hall of the International Education Center, complementing themes such as “Lanterns Illuminate the Four Seas, Riddles Connect the Five Continents” and “Small Lanterns Light Up Big Dreams.” During the activity, participants who correctly guessed lantern riddles received small Chinese knots as prizes, with laughter and cheer filling the venue.

At the conclusion of the event, all teachers and students took a group photo. The international students expressed that the event not only allowed them to immerse themselves in traditional Chinese culture but also enhanced their Chinese expression skills through hands-on practice, deepening their understanding and love for Chinese culture. In the future, the college will continue to use cultural activities as a bond to build a more dynamic finance and economics exchange platform, promote the deep integration of China’s outstanding traditional culture with international finance and economics education, and support the achievement of the college’s high-quality development goals.