Lunar New Year 2024

A message from Professor Hai Sui Yu, Interim Vice Chancellor and President

Lunar New Year is a time for reflection and celebration. From all of us here at Leeds, I want to wish you all the best for a healthy and happy Year of the Dragon.  

As we leave behind 2023 and embark on 2024, I hope that it will be a successful year for us all. I am very proud to be part of such a strong, supportive and truly international community of students, staff and alumni, and look forward to working together in the year ahead. 

祝愿大家龙年吉祥！身体健康！万事如意！

Watch our video Happy Lunar New Year 2024:

You can view a transcript for the video Happy Lunar New Year 2024 at the end of this page.

Messages from our students, staff and alumni

As we welcome the Year of the Dragon, our global community share their Lunar New Year wishes and how they will be celebrating.

Hieu Nguyen, School of Law

Happy New Year everyone! I wish you a year full of joy, luck, and success, especially who are studying will get the degree that you wanted.

This is my first time ever celebrating this occasion of the year far away from Vietnam, but fortunately I still have my loved one here. We will prepare some traditional food and enjoy together.

Qian Zhang, MEd, 2017

It is the warm feeling that I like and miss most about Chinese New Year. When I was little, I was living in the countryside with my grandma because my parents had to work in big cities to make a living. So for kids like me, the Chinese New Year offered us the precious chance to stay with our parents for a couple of weeks.

Every year, my mum will cook a tableful of dishes for the New Year’s Eve Meal and I especially love the fish cake dish. It is a local dish from my hometown, which is made from grass carp, eggs and pork. It normally takes about a day to make this dish, but if you’ve ever tasted it, you’d agreed that it’s worth the wait!

Tan Wei Qi, School of Biochemistry and Microbiology

Grateful for family, friends, and good fortune this Lunar New Year. Wishing you all the best in the year ahead. ❤️✨ 祝愿大家在新的一年健康平安，财源广进，心想事成，万事如意 

Amalia Chng Wan Yi, School of Food Science and Nutrition

新年快乐，龙年大吉 🐉！祝大家在新的一年里身体健康，学业有成 🍊🧧 I normally celebrate Chinese New Year with a big reunion dinner with my family. It’s a yearly tradition whereby my family gather together and eat hotpot while catching up on what we’ve all been doing the past year. It’s always nice to be surrounded by loved ones especially with relatives you don’t see often due to busy schedules. 

Professor Lynda Jiwen Song, Leeds University Business School

Dad and mom celebrated their 50th golden wedding anniversary. When I returned to Beijing in early December 2023, it started snowing, and our family strolled down the streets in the fresh air after the snow to take commemorative photos. The joyful atmosphere was floating around. Here is our photo. Wishing everyone a happy Chinese New Year in the Year of the Dragon, and may your families be blessed with happiness! 

Yung Wong, student ambassador, BA Journalism

Happy Lunar New Year! 新年快樂! Traditionally, I celebrate Lunar New Year by visiting relatives and having reunion feasts with family and friends. Even though we are not seeing each other face to face this year, it will still be nice to keep in touch with everyone virtually and give each other blessings! 

Professor Binhua Wang, School of Languages, Cultures and Societies

龙腾虎跃新春至，祝福利兹步步高。龙年到，好运来! As the dragon soars and the tiger leaps, the Chinese Lunar New Year arrives. Wishing all the Leeds staff, students and alumni a prosperous career as well as a happy and fulfilling life in the new year! 

Wenjie (Carmen) Zhang, MA Business 2023

What I like the most about Lunar New Year is the fireworks and the decorations!

Liangtun (Amoon) Lu, MA Design 2019

China is a very large country. I am a Cantonese from the south, and the flower market is a distinctive feature of Guangdong’s Spring Festival, where people visit on New Year’s Eve to buy flowers and potted plants, symbolizing the new year’s vitality and prospect. The culinary culture is taken to its peak in Guangdong during the Spring Festival.

The reunion dinner is one of the most important eating customs, where families prepare a lavish meal. The dishes are not only a feast for the eyes and palate but also full of auspicious meanings, such as “Fa Cai Hao Shi” (oysters and sea moss for prosperity), “Nian Nian You Yu” (fish for abundance), and various cakes symbolizing prosperity and harvest.

Theresa Collante, PG cert Health Sciences, 2023

We Filipinos love to celebrate the Lunar New Year by having a food crawl, eating noodles and “tikoy” all the way, in Binondo, Manila. Children enjoy the occasion because of the festive dragon dance and the money gifts called “angpao” that they receive. 

Fangyi Chloe Liu, MA TESOL, 2024

During the Spring Festival, my enjoyment extends beyond the delicious foods such as dumplings, fried dough twists, and spring rolls. I also appreciate the festive decorations like red couplets and hanging red lanterns, as well as traditional folk activities like lion and dragon dances.

However, my favourite tradition is the giving of red envelopes, known as “hóngbāo”. As one of the younger family members, it’s a highlight when the working adults, our elders, give us these red packets containing “lucky money”. This tradition is by far my favorite aspect of the celebrations.

Vanessa Chua, BA Business Management

Happy Chinese New Year to all who celebrate it! For me, my family usually does a big cleaning the week before New Year, to create a clean and fresh start to the new year. I brought this habit with me to the UK and will have to start cleaning my room quite soon. We also buy new clothes and get our haircut done before the date, again, for a fresh start. It is said that, if you clean your room or have a haircut on the day itself, it sort of translates to you and your family having bad luck in the new year. So, it became really important to stick to these rules even if I am not celebrating in Singapore.

I will be gathering with my friends and my society for a New Year dinner at a hotpot restaurant. Afterwards we will probably gather at a friend’s flat to play games and usher in the new year together!

Vanessa’s recipe for Yusheng

This is a tradition celebrated in Singapore, and it’s one of my favourite New Year dishes. It is the first dish that will be served and everyone has to take at least a bite as it ushers in the fortune and prosperity of the New Year. 

The dish is called yusheng and is one of the most fun, yet messy traditions.

It is made up of multiple ingredients and they are laid out separately around the dish bowl. The head of the house or a representative arranges them together in a bowl while shouting auspicious phrases. Once all the ingredients are piled on, everyone will grab a chopstick and toss it all up in the air, and hopefully most of the food lands on the bowl. This process is called “lohei”. The presentation of the dish can also be in the form of the represented animal of the year. Since 2023 was the Year of the Rabbit, my friends and I designed the dish as a rabbit.  

Here is just a general recipe, but the most important ingredients are salmon and plum sauce, although you can make a vegetarian version: 

1. Shredded carrot  
2. Shredded cucumber 
3. Mango/tangerine 
4. Smoked or raw salmon/abalone 
5. Sauces: plum sauce, sesame oil, five-spice powder 
6. Sesame seeds 
7. Roasted peanuts  
8. Fried wanton strips 
9. Lime  

The dish should look really colourful! Gather your friends, and the ingredients, look up on Google what are the phrases to say when you add each ingredient, then comes the fun part. Toss the ingredients high up in the air and shout Happy New Year! The higher the toss, the more luck will come your way.

I hope that you try it, and have a Happy New Year! 

Video transcript

[The University of Leeds logo appears, music plays].

[Professor Hai Sui Yu, Interim Vice Chancellor and President appears on screen]. Hai Sui Yu says: Lunar New Year is a time for reflection and celebration. From all of us here at Leeds I want to wish you all the best for a healthy and happy Year of the Dragon. 

[A group of seven people from the Chinese Students and Scholars Association Leeds appear in a room on campus]. They say: Wishing you all good luck in the Year of the Dragon, may all your hopes be fulfilled. Happy Spring Festival. 

[Frances Noble, Comms and Engagement Office for the Business Confucius Institute appears, in a room on campus with traditional decorations and soft toy giant panda]. Frances Noble says: Wishing everyone 新年快乐 龙年大吉 Happy New Year, have an auspicious year of the Dragon. Happy New Year. 

[Footage of students taking part in activities including playing a zither (stringed instrument), Chinese calligraphy and writing messages on a lightboard].

Frances Noble says: If you’re celebrating in Leeds, far from home, we hope you find your community here. And if you are not familiar with Spring Festival, I hope you will also learn some of those phrases and get involved in the celebrations too. 

[Xin Li from the School of Education appears]. Xin Li says: Happy New Year, everyone. So 新年快乐、年年有余 that means we hope you have a bountiful year. 

[Professor Hai Sui Yu, Interim Vice Chancellor and President appears]. Hai Sui Yu says: As we leave behind 2023 and embark on 2024, I hope that it will be a successful year for us all. 

[A series of clips of students taking part in activities including making decorations from paper, Chinese calligraphy and writing messages on a lightboard].

Hai Sui Yu says: I’m very proud to be part of such a strong support team and truly international community of students, staff and alumni, and look forward to working together in the year ahead. 

[A group of ten people appear, they are in a restaurant, some are waving flags]. They say: We are in Beijing. Happy New Year.  新年快乐 万事兴隆 龙年大吉 Happy New Year, may everything go well, have an auspicious Year of the Dragon.

[Xiujuan Wu, Chinese Instructor, Business Confucius Institute appears]. Xiujuan Wu says: I’d like to wish everybody a Happy New Year.  新年快乐 (Happy New Year) and this year is the year of the Dragon. So 龙年大吉 (have an auspicious Year of the Dragon). 

[Professor Lynda Song, Director, Business Confucius Institute appears]. Lynda Song says: Happy New Year. Happy Lunar New Year. Happy Chinese New Year. Happy New Year. 

[Professor Hai Sui Yu, Interim Vice Chancellor and President appears]. Hai Sui Yu says: Whatever you’re doing to celebrate, please enjoy this special occasion and may the Year of the Dragon bring you and your family good luck. 

祝愿大家龙年吉祥！身体健康！万事如意！ 

Wishing everyone good luck and good health in the Year of the Dragon, may all your wishes come true.

[The University of Leeds logo appears, and the web address www.leeds.ac.uk].