Lunar New Year rice balls hand made by Pathology PhD students
4th year PhD candidate Yuanfan Yang writes, “The Lunar New Year, also called Chinese Spring Festival, is a time when families get together in Asian culture. Since traveling home is not encouraged at this moment to fight with COVID, our grad students Nicole, Jennifer and I celebrated the festival by making a special kind of dumplings. It is called Yuanxiao, a glutinous sweet rice ball typically with sesame, peanut butter filling or anything creative. The Chinese believe the round shape of the rice balls and special scene that they float up when boiled symbolize harmony, happiness and prosperity in the new year. In southern China, and across south and east Asia, they call it Tangyuan, which are smaller in size with different flavors. Durham is now a very diverse place where international students can get all the ingredients from a variety of different culture. We enjoyed the handmade treats and shared pictures with families online!”