On September 20th, 2017, New York University Shanghai’s Student Government hosted its annual Dumpling Festival, extending an invitation to all students and faculty.The 2017 Dumpling Festival, like last year, took place in the basement level one cafeteria. Upon, getting off the elevator, smiles lined the wall as people paraded towards the dumplings. There was quite an assortment of dumplings including, but not limited to, pork, shrimp, samosas, traditional Chinese dumplings, and mochi. The early bird definitely gets the worm because the tables ran out quickly.

Pictured: Nia Thomas“The shrimp and Indian Dumplings were the best! And the best part is they’re cheap, they’re tasty and they’re filling!” said freshman Rebecca Ko.Many upperclassmen wondered why they number of dumplings decreased from the previous year’s 10,000 to 3,000. “That was actually a mistake, last year there was about the same amount of dumplings. Even in this case, the event was very successful,” said Event Committee Director Cynthia Wang. This year saw a big contrast to last year. Musical chairs was the only game being played and no activities past that. Some students looking forward to the event were upset when they arrived due to lack of activities. Some sophomores expressed that this year’s festival was limited compared to last year. Others students justified this decision by reminding each other that they don’t need games to have fun. People were there to eat some good food with friends.Musical chairs was a hit, though. A group of 7-9 players passionately and seriously played, and afterwards all players received a dumpling shaped stuffed figure. Freshman Manal Masood, the winner of her round celebrated her victory by proclaiming, “I did this for all the women out there! Who run the world? Girls!”

Pictured: Bilal Munawar, Greta SolomonIn closing, the Presidential Press Secretary Gaute Almas Anfinset said, “The Dumpling Festival helps bring this school together and create a school spirit and a culture around dumplings. This exemplifies the diversity of our school, where the group as a whole found they all taste delicious!”

Pictured: Alison Frank, Arizona Semones, Zain Majid, Isaac Schlager, Harry Cheng, John Liu This article was written by Tyson Lee Upshaw. Please send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit:Courtesy of Tyson Lee Upshaw