More than 30 students from China study at Penza State University. Being far from home, they keep their traditions and celebrate New Year singing songs, firing crackers and enjoying delicious food.

In cooperation with the lecturers of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language (PSU Institute of International Cooperation), Chinese students arranged the festive event devoted to Chinese New Year. University academics, students from various countries and Russian schoolchildren were there to congratulate Chinese citizens on New Year. The participants learnt a lot about China.

Sergey Vasin, Vice-Rector for International Affairs, welcomed students from China and wished them Happy New Year. In 2018 China celebrates New Year from 16 February to 2 March. 

Chinese students organised the festive event as it is customary in their home country. Chinese myths say that on the first day of New Year a bloodthirsty monster named Nian started devouring everything around. One day people noticed that it got scared of a small kid wearing red clothing and concluded that the monster was afraid of red. Since then, it is impossible to image New Year without great fireworks, and the whole country is decorated with red lanterns.

The guests of the festive event learnt first-hand about various New Year traditions in China. The event moderators – He XinXing and Han Lei – live in Penza for several years and speak good Russian. They told about Chinese national cuisine, calligraphy, and traditions. Moreover, the students sand songs and recited poems.

He XinXing and Professor of History Vyacheslav Vlasov acted out an episode from 1731 when the Chinese Ambassador visited Penza.