Overseas Chinese keep Spring Festival Eve dinner tradition
People's Daily app
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A Chinese family in Madison, Wisconsin prepares a dinner for their friends on February 4, 2019. Spring Festival Eve dinner, also known as the Family Reunion dinner, is one of the most important dinners for Chinese families.
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A Spring Festival Eve dinner of a Chinese family in Toronto, Canada. Chinese people have preserved the tradition of having a reunion dinner on Spring Festival Eve for almost 2,000 years. Even when they have immigrated or are going on an overseas trip, they keep the tradition.
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A Chinese family on a European tour dine in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, as their Spring Festival Eve dinner. Chinese people are expected to make 7 million overseas visits this Spring Festival, according to Ctrip, a leading Chinese online travel agency.
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A Spring Festival Eve dinner of Chinese scholars in London. They are 2018/2019 Chevening Scholarship awardees.
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Chen Jing, who studies in London School of Economics and Political Science, prepares for the dinner. Chevening is a UK government award program aimed at developing global leaders. The scholarships are awarded to outstanding emerging leaders who will pursue a one-year master’s degree at any UK university.
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Chicken is prepared before cooking. More than 4,000 young Chinese people have been awarded the scholarship since the program started in China in 1983, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
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In the 2018-2019 term, 78 Chevening Scholarship winners are from China, according to Chen Jing, one of the Chinese scholars.
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Due to academic work, they stay in the UK instead of returning to China for the festival. To celebrate the festival, they get together and prepare a reunion dinner themselves.
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The scholars, each holding a small red lantern, pose for a photo and extend festival greetings to all Chinese people.
(Photos: provided to People’s Daily app)