Colourful School Life in Xiwai

2021-05-25

At Xiwai we believe in celebrating both traditional Chinese holidays as well as western holidays. Most families have holiday traditions, regardless of what holiday you are celebrating. Even when we grow up and form our own families, we naturally merge our new traditions with some of the old. It seems that traditions, new or old have a strong place in our hearts. Holiday traditions become an-essential aspect of how we celebrate, and there is a reason why we keep them as a part of our lives for so long. Simply put we hold onto holiday traditions because they add meaning to our celebrations, and help bond us to those we love. 

Each year the students and teachers at Xiwai celebrate western festivals together. From Halloween on October 31st where everyone dresses to Thanksgiving day in November where the teachers and students share what they’re thankful for and share traditional thanksgiving day food like turkey, stuffing and vegetables. 

Of course the biggest Western holiday we celebrate is Christmas where Santa pays a visit to Xiwai and the students share gifts, play games and watch Christmas movies. These festivals form a connection between the students and the teachers.

We also celebrate Chinese festivals, recently we celebrated the dragon boat festival and the students taught the teachers about the significance of this day as well as sharing the traditional moo cakes that people enjoy during this holiday. To summarise both Western and Chinese festivals play a key role at Xiwai and provide a good chance to learn about other cultures and traditions. 

The Xiwai Debate Society was founded in 2017 by Will Bond (Head of History & Humanities) and Steven Herring (Middle School Coordinator). During the first 4 years we had great success at the tournaments we entered all over China including Hangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou, Shanghai and Ningbo. Here are a few of our trophies and awards won by Xiwai students over the years.