NEWS & MEDIA

By Nick Yates, ISB Communications

The International School of Beijing (ISB) has ushered in the Chinese New Year with traditional celebrations on campus. Students, teachers, and staff came together for activities including a school-wide parade, performances, and arts and crafts.

These festivities are an important fixture on the ISB calendar every year, honoring the school’s host country. ISB celebrates Chinese New Year and cultural festivals from other countries as a way of fostering internationalism and global citizenship. That supports one of ISB’s strategic priorities – ensuring strong, lifelong peer relationships across national, linguistic, and cultural lines among students and the school’s inclusive wider community.

The new lunar year under the Chinese zodiac is the Year of the Rabbit. Rabbits are seen as symbols of longevity, peace, and prosperity in local culture. With this zodiac animal hopping into view, this lunar year is predicted to be one of hope.

ISB is indeed hopeful! Recent changes to local Covid-19 regulations mean the school will now be able to organize more community events, really helping to strengthen relationships among students, staff, families, and alumni.

ISB’s Chinese Language and Culture Center (CLCC) was established in 2018 to enhance both Chinese language teaching and the school’s Chinese-themed events. For past Chinese New Years, the CLCC helped bring in guest speakers from local cultural institutions like the Forbidden City, as well as calligraphers, poets, and even legendary film director Zhang Yimou.

Everyone at ISB is looking forward to school events becoming better than ever and to once again being able to welcome parents more freely to campus – all while ensuring community safety, of course.

“Chinese New Year is the most significant holiday in this country, with traditions dating back 3,000 years,” explained Grace Zeng, CLCC leader and director of Chinese at ISB. “Our celebrations at school this week allowed our students to really connect with this tradition, and with their teachers and each other. These strong relationships, and this kind of shared cultural experience, form such a big part of a good international education.”

Xin nian kuai le to you all!

Strong relationships are one of three main strategic focus areas for ISB. Our news articles in 2022-2023 are all looking at an aspect of ISB that’s an example of one of the three areas. To find out more, click here.