Foreign Experts “Traditional Chinese Cooking” Spring Festival Experience Activity is Successfully Organized!

Foreign Experts “Traditional Chinese Cooking” Spring Festival Experience Activity is Successfully Organized!

On the afternoon of January 13, 2023, the “Green Channel” Program for the Employment of Spouses of Foreign Experts and the Foreign Experts “Chinese Traditional Cooking” Spring Festival Experience Activity, which were hosted by Hebei Provincial Department of Science and Technology and Hebei Provincial Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs and sponsored by Hebei AoYing Technology Co., Ltd., were successfully organized in Shijiazhuang.

The purpose of this event was to effectively manage and serve foreign experts, improve the “soft environment” for foreign experts to work and live in Hebei, promote Chinese workplace etiquette and culture, and invite foreign friends to experience Chinese New Year food and Spring Festival culture, so that foreign expert and their spouses can fit more quickly into Hebei's employment environment. The representatives of foreign expert and their spouses from enterprises and public institutions including Hebei University of Science & Technology, Hebei GEO University, the High School Affiliated to Hebei Normal University, and Shijiazhuang Saintach Kindergarten participated in the event.

The event started with the training on Chinese workplace culture and Traditional Chinese Cooking, which introduced the difference between Chinese and Western workplace cultures, Chinese table manners and culinary culture, as well as traditional Hebei food and famous Hebei cuisine restaurants, so that foreign friends can learn more about and love Hebei cuisine.

During the traditional Chinese New Year cuisine experience session, the organizer conducted a live demo of the methods and techniques of making Chinese New Year cuisines (dumplings and glutinous rice balls). The foreign experts and their spouses learned the methods and techniques while watching the live demo. They made dumplings and glutinous rice balls with great interest. As the water was gradually boiling, the dumplings were floating and rolling on the water, and the glutinous rice aroma emerged from glutinous rice balls boiling in the pot. The strong atmosphere of Chinese New Year warmed everyone's heart there.

Professor Ding Yi, a Chinese-Canadian expert who participated in the event, was from Hebei GEO University. He was a 1977-cohort geology specialty alumnus of Hebei GEO University. He actively participated in interactive games and enthusiastically introduced the Spring Festival customs and cuisine of his hometown to foreign friends. Ash, who was from the Philippines, said that she never went home for a reunion in the four years since she came to China. However, as she spent the Spring Festival with Chinese friends, she strongly felt at home. She really enjoyed this event. She hoped that she would have more opportunities to meet the participants again.