Far From Home: International Students on Welcoming in the Year of The Snake in London

28 January 2025

It's the Year of the Snake! UCL Student Storyteller Hermione Chan explores how our international student community celebrates the new year when they're far from home.

This is a post from a UCL Student Storyteller based on personal reflections and interviews.

To be away from home is one thing, but to be on the other side of the globe while a major celebration marking the new year occurs in your own country is another struggle altogether. Considered one of the most significant events in many cultures, the Year of the Snake takes place today, the 29th January, and is celebrated each year to signify the start of the Nónglì (农历) lunisolar calendar. So if you weren't already familiar with the holiday, now you know!

I'm not here to lecture you on cultural holidays, though. Rather, in the weeks leading up to this Wednesday, I’d been in no mood to do anything other than call my family. For someone so used to the vibrant festivities, constant chatter and the warmth of home-cooked meals during the New Year period, the increasingly damp chill that had settled over London was a reminder that I would not be getting any of that this January. Last year, I had simply spent the day alone, working on an essay and wallowing in the same melancholy that was threatening to swallow me whole once more.

This year, however, I decided to take matters into my own hands, and upon exercising all of my extroversion for the year, I managed to get together most of my friends, several of whom were from similar backgrounds as myself and felt much like I did when it came to spending the New Year away from home, for a series of meals in the days leading up to the official date.

My good friend and fellow English coursemate Anakin told me over dinner together that he’d been attempting to keep in high spirits, meeting up with other people and organising his room in a bout of customary spring cleaning to ward out bad luck. He’d stuck a set of 揮春 (fai chun)—the traditional, often square or rectangular decorations put up during Chinese New Year with phrases signifying good luck and prosperity—on his doorways. For Anakin, who comes from Hong Kong and possesses both Cantonese and Irish roots, the New Year celebrations back home have always been an interesting affair of cultures, and spending it in London wasn’t all that sad. “One thing I absolutely can’t do without on our New Year, though,” he would add, “is not going to Haidilao.” I’d have to agree: the New Year just isn’t complete without the steaming aroma of Chinese hot pot… and maybe a depleted bank account at the end of it all.

Jaime, a second-year medical student from Singapore, was keen to share the food she’d brought from home with us. Like Anakin and I, she “usually celebrated with friends by gathering and having hot pot.” Jaime also mentioned she liked bringing traditional snacks like pineapple tarts and eating them with friends—as her friend, I can attest to this. She added, “I’ll try to call my family back home to wish them a happy New Year as well. It’s definitely not the same, but we make do!”

Rebekah, who is also from Singapore and studies English, believes strongly in the power of food (and rightly so) as well as the concept of 團圓 (tuan yuan), which sees that young people like us make an effort to uphold the tradition of returning home to reunite with family whenever possible. On the last day of the New Year, all family members gather for a reunion dinner, known as 團圓飯 (tuan yuan fan). She told us fondly that because we were her family here in London, she was happy to enjoy her tuan yuan fan with us.

As if living out Rebekah’s words and belief in tuan yuan, I would set out for a different friend’s place for a homemade hot pot dinner the following day. While we chatted, we also agreed to attend UCL’s Year of the Snake celebrations together.

Kevin, who I’d met while living in student accommodation at Arthur Tattersall House last year and is in his second year of studying chemistry, was quite adamant about calling his family right as it turned midnight in China and it was the New Year rolled around. He’s from Qingdao, a seaside city in mainland China, and for his family, maintaining frequent communication is extremely important. He also shared a unique tradition with us: “In my home, an elder typically shares the family tree with the younger generation, which contains information about their heritage. It’s always cool to hear stories about familial history.”

The last two people present were chemical engineering students Siang Yie from Malaysia and Casey from Essex. The latter noted that although he “didn’t exactly have any direct connections to the New Year, I’ve always been passionate about Chinese culture. I simply enjoy the warmth and the company of friends. In fact, I’m currently learning Mandarin as an elective, and I’m excited to one day master the language.”

Siang laughed at this, seeing as he had been quite instrumental in this language-learning journey of Casey’s as a speaking partner. Siang was also quite profound when asked about how it felt to spend the New Year away from home, as “Chinese New Year is the time of the year that makes me miss seeing and spending time with my family even more as a Malaysian student studying in London. To find that sense of community this season, I’m celebrating the New Year with my friends over some delicious and festive meals and I’m very much looking forward to the time we’ll spend together sharing laughter and joy, which I think is the real spirit of this celebration.”

As I walked back to my flat later that evening, slightly miffed that the sky wasn’t alight with the bright colours of light shows and fireworks that I was so used to during this season—I stopped. Yes, I was far from home, and yes, I was away from my family, but what of the people who felt the same way and didn’t have a single soul whatsoever to share the holidays with? What of these lonely individuals?

I’d been blessed with great friends willing to empathise and share their time and experiences with me. Feeling homesick is an undeniable fact, but there was still a massive international student body at UCL who could empathise and major celebrations on campus tailored to alleviate the distance.

So, in the Year of the Snake, I find myself in a completely different position than that of last year. In the past few weeks, I’ve come to realise that the spirit of the New Year lies not in the traditions of the culture or the location of the celebration, but rather in the people you surround yourself with and enjoy the day among. Happy Year of the Snake dear readers! 祝您 (wishing you) 恭喜發財 (gong xi fa cai; prosperity and good fortune) 身體健康 (shen ti jian kang; good health) 龍馬精神 (long ma jing shen; good vigour) and the brightest of days ahead.

About the author: UCL Student Storyteller Hermione Chan is currently a second-year English student. She says: "Having been raised in a small, unknown region in China called Macau, I'm extremely aware of the importance of representation and how that impacts our development as young consumers of media and the news. Highlighting obscure stories and bringing lesser-known issues to light in the most objective, comprehensive manner has always been a goal of mine, and this scheme is a perfect way to further my expertise in this area!

Although a big portion of my involvement with journalism is through video form, I'm excited to develop my writing and pitching skills, which are core components of being a journalist. This scheme will definitely push me to explore the many hidden nooks and crannies of university life and allow me to make the most of my time here in London!"