International students link online for Lantern Festival

International students from the College of International Education and Exchange at Tianjin Normal University celebrated Lantern Festival on Wednesday.

The festival, a traditional Chinese holiday that marks the end of Spring Festival, falls on Friday this year.

The students organized a series of performances, made lanterns and broadcast their celebrations online for students at the Confucius College at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, a college that has faculty members from Tianjin Normal.

The Kenyan students also presented performances and broadcast online for their international counterparts in Tianjin.

Hilda Juma of Kenyasang Tonight is Unforgettable, a popular Chinese song, with Sitti Holifah, an Indonesian student attending Tianjin Normal University, online simultaneously.

Romashova Olena, a graduate student majoring in Chinese in Tianjin performed a folk dance during the event. She said it was her first Lantern Festival. She also made Chinese-style lanterns.

"It's really fantastic for me to make such a great folk art item," she said. "Tianjin is really beautiful, and the university made me feel at home during the series of events."

The event was organized by the College of International Education and Exchange at Tianjin Normal University for international students who chose not to go back for their home countries for winter vacation amid the pandemic.