With the 2020 Chinese New Year looming, the International Cooperation Division (ICD) of the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics (CIOMP), Chinese Academy of Sciences organized a Lunar New Year Preparation themed activity for CIOMP’s foreign employees and students.

Dumplings are the stars of Chinese New Year dinner tables in northern China. To help get the festival mood going, foreign staff and students of CIOMP were treated to a free lesson in dumpling making Thursday (Jan. 16) afternoon, given by the master pastry chef of the CIOMP canteen. Later, they all had a fun time working with dough and filling, which proved easy task for the physicists, who are all deft lab workers. However, observers did report that the pastry teacher, not used to lab work personally, were slightly amused by the very detailed questions posed by the scientists and students.

With the careful guidance of the teacher, everyone basically mastered the skills of making dumplings. In the end, everyone tasted the fruits of their work together. Ms. WANG Hui, deputy director of the ICD, told the foreign experts and students at the dumpling making event that although they were far away from their family and homeland, they were part of the big warm CIOMP family. She gave all New Year gifts— couplets and blessings and wished them fruitful work in the new year.

Most of the foreign experts at the dumpling making event are with the Guo Chunlei China-US Photonics Laboratory and the Bimberg Chinese-Germany Green Photonics Research Center. A total of 14 foreign researchers participated in the activity. They said they have always been very interested in Chinese traditional culture, and were glad to take part in an event that let them learn about China and communicate with researchers from other countries.