Never did I imagine that, after coming to Westtown School, I began to have a new understanding of food and cooking. As the Head of International Student Organization, and the Head of Chinese Culture Club, I initiated an annual event at school: an all school Lunar New Year Dinner, made by all Asian students, to serve all 500 students, staff and faculty members. For the past three years, this event had been highly welcoming at school. Through the process of cooking together, Asian students will experience the Spring Festival spirit and a family atmosphere, thus lessening their homesickness during festival, a time in Asia that families gather together. The whole school could be filled with a mutual sense of internationality by the power of cuisine.

I’m proud to see the grand banquet has become an important gathering event of our school.  Yet, I did encounter numerous obstacles. In the first year, the school had no budget for us to buy ingredients. Although disheartened at first, whenever I pictured the wonderful scene of an all school Lunar New Year dinner, I persevered with my determination. With the only a hundred bucks in International Student Organization, I bought boxes of delicious Korean Lotte chocolate pies for fundraising. With the efforts of my Korean and Vietnam friends, eventually we earned two hundred dollars to buy ingredients.

Conflicts, however, arose when Korean and Chinese boys were about to fight for the right to cook the meat dish. Boys formed national factions, claiming that if they didn’t get to cook the meat dish, they would quit as a country group. I talked to the boys by telling them that the New Year dinner was not at all about competition, and on the contrary it was created for a cooperative work and a mutual celebration. I talked to the Chinese boys and they finally agreed to yield the “meat dish right” to Korean students. Merging ingredients requires the process of chopping, steaming, frying, stewing, and after these steps, ingredients blend into one delicious dish. Bringing different country factions together is just the same, requiring communication, negotiation, discussion and cooperation. Finally, when these cross-nation boundaries were resolved, tolerance, understanding and mutual love for celebration unfolded themselves into each tasty Chinese dumpling, Vietnamese spring roll and Korean rice cake.

When we finally ate as a family of 500 people, coming from 27 countries, each of us was filled with true satisfaction, gratitude and happiness for this international New Year. Of course, the dishes we made were not as professional, but each of the members at Westtown ate like a king. Eating, for me, had been merely pleasure for my tongue, but at Westtown I realized that cuisine could be a solace and a powerful way to spread out love and unity.