Lunar New Year is a holiday about community, honoring ancestors, welcoming good fortune and eating a variety of food. Archer students, parents and faculty came together to celebrate the start of the year according to the lunar calendar. In 2026, the Lunar New Year began Feb. 17 and ended March 3, and the Parents of Asian & South Asian Archer Students hosted a celebration Sunday, March 1. The dinner event included a Chinese banquet-style dinner and traditional Chinese sugar painting.
PASAAS is an affinity group that was founded this year to bring together Asian families at Archer. Archer parent and founding member of PASAAS Jenny Wang helped organize the event and said she hoped it would build connections among families and across different grade levels.
“There are many Asian American families at Archer, but until now, there was not an affinity group for them. We wanted to have an opportunity for the Asian American families to connect and celebrate the Asian holidays that are part of our heritage,” Wang said. “This is just another way for families to have an opportunity to meet each other, connect and share our perspectives and thoughts about raising daughters at Archer.”
Members of PASAAS considered various types of Lunar New Year celebrations before settling on a sit-down dinner at Meizhou Dongpo, an established restaurant in China with a California location at Westfield Century City. Wang said they worked with the restaurant to create a menu that was authentic and enjoyable for all ages.
“It’s centrally located because the Archer community is spread out, and it was accommodating to what we’re looking for, which is a semi-private space that’s nice and authentic Chinese cuisine,” Wang said. “We went to the restaurant a couple of times to try the food and talk to them. We looked at the menu and we swapped out some items to make sure we had a delicious menu that’s approachable for everybody and that also reflects some of the more typical New Year cuisines.”
Some of the dishes included in the banquet were roasted duck, noodles, dumplings and fish, all of which are symbolic to eat during the new year. Dumplings, for example, represent wealth because they resemble the shape of ancient Chinese gold and silver ingots. For fish — its Chinese translation is yú, which sounds similar to the Chinese word for surplus or abundance. Eating both of these foods brings prosperity and wealth in the coming year. The restaurant served each table banquet-style, with numerous dishes shared among families. Averie Tan (’32) said she was happy she got to try so many dishes, even when she was full.
“I was sitting with my mom, my brother, my dad, Ms. Chen and my friend Alex. I’m thinking about the big round tables with the lazy Susans,” Tan said. “It was very fun, and I liked the food a lot, especially the duck.”
There was also a traditional Chinese candy maker who created sugar paintings in the shapes of dragons, monkeys, tigers and more. PASAAS parent organizers said it was also a good way to get people out of their seats to mingle.
“She was there for almost three hours, the whole time. It was nonstop because everybody was lining up and everybody wanted some to take home,” Wang said. “I’ve actually never watched the work to create something like that, so I think, aside from the kids enjoying the candy itself, the adults also appreciated the artwork behind it. She was just making art live.”
Both Tan and Sydney Lem (’28) said the event allowed them to get to know members of the Archer community who they would not normally interact with in school.
“It allows us to connect over something, and since I’m in sixth grade, it helps me find something to connect with other sixth graders about,” Tan said, “and it also makes connections across the grades.”
Lem sat at a table with a group of high schoolers, middle schoolers and faculty, many of whom she had not known well before.
“I actually enjoyed it, as I was one of the older students, so I got to talk to a lot of the sixth and seventh graders and their parents about my experiences at Archer and about language especially,” Lem said. “It was nice connecting with the younger students and other people, as well.”
Lem said gatherings like this one create space for holidays that are not always celebrated. She appreciated the representation and also enjoyed meeting families that share the same background as hers.
“It’s important to help cultivate a greater sense of community within the Archer community,” Lem said, “especially because we want all of our cultures to be represented.”
