Harrow Shanghai held its Chinese New Year celebrations on Friday, 9th February. For the first time, the Mandarin department collaborated with Friends of Harrow and the Student Council to make the event a true Harrow family day. Together they put on a CNY fair to give pupils in all sections of the school an opportunity to explore Chinese culture.
Dressed from top to toe in traditional Chinese dress, the pupils really enjoyed the number of experiences available to them. These included throwing hoops to win some fantastic prizes, getting temporary tattoos, paper cutting, making umbrellas, fan and opera mask painting, and eating far too many dumplings and sweet treats! Early Years and Pre-Prep pupils also got to meet Fufu the Panda (courtesy of one of our Year 12 pupils and a cuddly panda costume!). Fufu first made an appearance in Aladdin and proved so popular that he was brought back for a guest appearance at CNY. Specialist street artists came in and demonstrated their crafts too. These included Word Art, where pupils could get their names written with colourful symbols, play dough moulding and sugar painting. All pupils were also able to watch a Shadow Puppet Show.
The concert performances then commenced. A long red carpet was placed in the middle of the auditorium for pupils to parade their costumes. Everyone was impressed by the array of minority costumes including Miao, Dai and Man Ethnic groups. This was followed by a series of impressive Chinese New Year themed musical and dance performances from the pupils and then some spectacular performances by external performers including Peking Opera, a hula hoop acrobatic show and plate spinning. It was a wonderful event involving the whole of the Harrow community and a great way to welcome in the Year ofthe Dog.
