[wellington_wistia]qm1sbkhutv[/wellington_wistia] A very happy beginning of the Year of the Pig to you all! I’d like to express my heartfelt thanks and pride regarding the way the entire Wellington community bonded during the Chinese New Year celebrations and events. CNY is of course a very special time for all of us here in Shanghai, as we give thanks together for another great year and look forward to the challenges and opportunities to be encountered in the year to come. It’s a time for celebrating our strengths and successes, which is exactly what I feel we managed to do at the end of the Year of the Dog. Art Auction raises over RMB 30,000 As ever, I was delighted by the artistic flair of our pupils in the Prep and Pre-Prep Schools. Their beautiful artworks brightened the main reception area and attracted bids of no less than RMB30,788 in charitable donations from our wonderfully generous parents during the Charity Art Auction. Not only is this an annual opportunity for our pupils to demonstrate their artistic ability and cultural appreciation of China, it’s an invaluable chance to give back to our College’s host nation through worthy causes.   Chinese heritage comes to life on stage Pre-Prep pupils also showed their creative talents during the CNY theatrical performances. From the nature-themed retelling of Chinese classic stories, to the dramatic recitals of Chinese poetry in full costume, the children brought a very significant part of China’s rich storytelling heritage to life through their theatrical efforts.   The Temple Fair embraces all things Chinese The last Friday before the CNY break saw a successful return of the Temple Fair. Thanks to the exceptional efforts of my colleagues, many pupil volunteers and also Friends of Wellington members, this year’s event was noticeably bigger than the inaugural Temple Fair. With 16 fully-stocked traditional workshops and activities, including rickshaw rides, lantern making, paper cutting, sugar animal figurines, multiple alley games, calligraphy, sugar spinning candies and more, there really was something for everyone to enjoy. The dumplings were also a big hit once again - the rainbow, shepherd’s purse, pork cabbage, mushroom and other types made up a veritable mountain of dumplings! I’d also like to give a further mention to Mr Wood, our resident martial arts master with lightning-fast hands and feet! His Kung Fu workshop was another favourite as pupils got a small but informative taste of this highly disciplined artform that means so much to China’s heritage. As well as returning favourites, we had some Temple Fair ‘firsts’ to celebrate as well. To welcome each of the schools to the fair, the Pre-Prep, Prep and Senior School choirs respectively sang traditional Chinese songs. Accompanying them, for the first time ever we had several of our own Wellington pupils playing traditional Chinese instruments which was absolutely fantastic to see and hear. Our Temple Fair attracted a lot of interest from the wider community about what we are doing here at Wellington in terms of promoting cultural appreciation and inclusion as part of our educational ethos. This is a great message for everyone to hear, particularly our pupils, who we hope will become the next generation of truly inclusive global citizens. An auspicious start to the Year of the Pig Once again, I would like to thank everyone for coming together to enjoy a special time in our calendar that is fun yet also deeply important. Thank you all for embracing Chinese New Year with such enthusiasm, which was apparent from the multitude of bright and beautiful costumes, the laughter, generosity, compassion and open-mindedness shown throughout all of the events held. Happy 2019 and happy Year of the Pig to you all. I hope it is another truly great year for the College and everyone who makes up the Wellington community.