Year of the metal rabbit

Six weeks into the European New Year, the Chinese Lunar New Year of the rabbit springs into action with celebrations, not only in the heart of China, but also at the UT. Festivities organized by the Chinese Student Association, despite gail-like winds blowing outside, drew 160 guests who mingled and learned the art of dumpling making and calligraphy writing.

Robbin Engels

At the door, two Chinese students, one from Beijing and the other from Shandong Province, greet visitors and hand each one a lottery number, Chinese calendars and red cards with a yellow character to hang on the door of their house, meaning in essence: ‘May many blessings go into your home.'

In the glassed atrium, Ed Brinksma opens the evening with a speech, mentioning famous people who are born under the sign of the rabbit like Dick Bruna, Angela Jolie and Andy Warhol. While various representatives from international student associations give a brief reflection on what a rabbit means in their country, the aroma of Hu’s Garden food fills the air, as volunteers remove the chafing dish covers, preparing to open the buffet.

In turn, Mingliang Jin shares a film, showing the step-by-step process of how to make a dumpling, while people casually sip Palm beers and glasses of coca-cola. ‘The person, who makes the most beautiful and highest number of dumplings, wins a prize,’ announces Jin, adding in that everyone will get to taste the workshop results if the dumplings can survive being steamed.

Indians, Chinese, Dutch and Mexicans crowd the table to make dumplings, experiencing first-hand one of China’s ancient-old cooking techniques. ‘Ok, ok,’ says Jin,‘let’s start the competition.’ Elsewhere, children are nibbling on kroepoek shrimp chips and playing with rocks in a bed of artificial plants. 

Memories of China are being shared the whole evening. ‘Beijing clears out, clogging the roads when people go to their family house to celebrate,’ recalls a 29-year-old post doctoral researcher, who explains that while dumplings are popular in the North regions, rice cakes are served in the South of China. ‘It’s said that the year of the sheep is not as lucky as other years,’ says organizer Xiaofeng Sui from the Shandong Province, who was born in the year of the pig which means to Chinese, you are a hard worker. Has the animal zodiac prediction held true in his life? He laughs, ‘No, not really. Last year was the year of the metal tiger and is known to be a lucky year. Chinese consider it an ‘auspicious occasion’ to have a baby born in the so-called years of good fortune.’ Sui is especially proud of his wife, who is working as a volunteer that night behind the bar. She left her job with a multi-national company in China to accompany him in the Netherlands. ‘She’s learned Dutch and is now working on learning German,’ he says.

Later in the evening, Lixian Xu, 28, is eager to demonstrate to people how to draw Chinese characters with black ink on red paper, explaining in exact details how you should not let your arm rest on the table.‘It’s different than how you hold a pencil,’ he shows and watches as Karen Paardenkooper, head of the International Office, writes with fluid movements, appearing to have long mastered the art. ‘Well, that’s more like painting,’ he casually observes. ‘She really takes her time with each brushstroke.’ 

‘What a job!’ says Paardenkooper. In China, the most valuable calligraphy pens – the absolute best – according to Xu, are made from the tail hair of a wolf and lesser quality models are made with the tail hair of sheep. Xu insists, ‘the hair is only taken from the tail.’ And in order to really be able to communicate daily, he estimates you roughly need to know around 5,000 to 6,000 Chinese characters.

Visit online and click on YouTube video about the Chinese Spring Festival: www.utnieuws.nl

With sleeves rolled up, Inge Broekman (center), institutional Erasmus coordinator, learns from Chinese students how to make dumplings. (Photo: Gijs van Ouwerkerk)