Embassy kit helps students for festival

Miao Changxia (left) from the Chinese embassy in Australia presents a Spring Festival kit to a Chinese resident of Canberra. CHU CHEN/XINHUA

CANBERRA－Containing disinfectant wipes, tea and various traditional handicrafts, Spring Festival kits were given to students from China by the Chinese embassy in Australia recently.

"Although I am not able to go back home for the festival, I felt the care and support of our mother country," says Zhang Jiayuan, a student at the Australian National University.

Like Zhang, several student representatives received the kits from the embassy, which they will distribute to their fellow Chinese students.

Wang Xiaoyong, father of an 11th-grader, says that he was happy to receive the kit because "it makes me feel the atmosphere of Spring Festival", and "we miss home at this time".

Xia Qichuan, 16, who has been in Canberra for nearly two years, is unable to go home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The teenager last year celebrated Spring Festival at home in East China's Anhui province.

He says that he was excited to learn that the kits were being distributed by the embassy.

"This year we will gather together with some other Chinese to make dumplings for the holiday," he adds.

Spring Festival is the most important festival for Chinese people, and also an important occasion for family reunion.

"We will make a feast with our friends and classmates for Lunar New Year's Eve," Xia says.

Zhang, from Shanghai, says: "I will also video chat with my parents to let them know that I am safe here."

Not only students received the kits. Miao Changxia, counsellor of consular affairs, also handed Spring Festival kits to representatives of Chinese people in Canberra. The embassy will also send some kits to the Northern Territory.

"Inside the kits, we not only give them some personal protective items to keep them safe during the pandemic, but also convey our festive greetings with small gifts," Miao says.

"It is our wish that in the year 2021, we can all stay healthy."