ZJU Alumni in Southern California Chinese New Year Gathering

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This past Saturday Feb 11th happened to be the Lantern Festival in China. A group of 180 Zhejiang University (ZJU) alumni in Southern California got together to celebrate the festival at Elk Lodge in Duarte, CA.   They greeted each other with smiles, talked about life and study when they were young in the same prior campus. They shared the good memories with laughter. The president of the ZJU Southern California Alumni Association Mr. Xudong Sun said, “We are all a part of a big family of Zhejiang University alumni.”

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The celebration was soaked with traditional Chinese food and culture. There was certainly a lot of traditional Chinese food, such as sweet rice ball filled with ground sesame, which stands for good fortune as family reunion. The stage was decorated with 4 red lanterns. Red packets were given out kids with good wishes. There were Chinese songs and self-made riddle games. Meanwhile it also gave a glimpse on the depth of the talent pool. There were violin performance, Jazz dance, Mongolian dance, and soprano aria ”O Mio Babbino Caro”. All were truly in professional quality. The most impressing was a “fashion show” of traditional dress Qipao. The show “Westlake Girls”, titled after a scenic lake in Hangzhou, “was dazzlingly beautiful”, as a participant Mr. Jiong Chen commented. Hanzhou is the picturesque city where ZJU is located and where the hearts belonged to this evening.

 

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The Consul Xianzhi Lu  and Consul Hua Liu from Consulate General of China in Los Angeles along with Prior Mayor of Duarte Mr. Samuel Kang were invited and came out to celebrate the occasion with the alumni. They brought their best wishes and voiced their support for stronger US-China relationship of cooperation and mutual benefits.