Over 2,600 visitors reveled at the annual International Winter Bazaar (IWB) held at the Bay Campus of Shekou International School (SIS) in Nanshan District on Dec. 9, enchanted by a diverse tapestry of global cultures.
The bazaar opened with a student orchestra performance and culminated in a vibrant community festivity as visitors swarmed to explore a lineup of over 60 booths hosted by teachers, families, vendors, and social organizations featuring specialty dishes, children’s games, and arts and crafts from over 20 countries.
“We are very excited to be hosting this community event at a record-breaking scale,” Harish Kanabar, head of SIS, said. “There were so many participants and organizations that wanted to register for the event so that we had to put them on a long waiting list. This year, we have booths representing South Africa and Jamaica, which are countries that have never been represented at previous events.”
Morgan Caid from the U.S. was one of the first to prepare her booth at this year’s IWB. The U.S. booth featured old-fashioned pastries like cupcakes and a classic American cocktail made with Jack Daniels whiskey and Coca Cola.
“I love the energy of the event,” Caid said. “It is a showcase of how many different cultures we can have in one place and how well we can work together.”
The Japan booth was one of the most popular at IWB. It was curated as a miniature of the country’s iconic summer temple fair, where visitors could play with water balloons and try their luck in a raffle to win Mount Fuji hairpins and Japanese snacks.
“There are not many Japanese families at SIS,” Rie Nakadai, an SIS parent and one of the hosts of the Japan booth, said. “So, we want to show our culture to the local community and let more people understand Japan.”
For five consecutive years, the Latin American families at SIS have joined forces to curate a “Latinas” booth at IWB, which sells specialty dishes and beverages from Argentina, Peru, Mexico and Venezuela.
“We host a booth together every year, as a testament to the close-knitted Latin American community,” Valeria Zanatti, a Peruvian teacher and parent at SIS, said. “We would love to make more people from China and Asia understand the beauty of Latin America and even make a trip to our continent in the future.”
Social organizations such as Karuna Rescue, the Wanxia Handicraft Volunteer Team from Shekou’s Haichang Community, and the Min’ai Rehabilitation Center added to the charitable component of the IWB, as sustainable charity serves as one of the major value propositions of the event.
At the booth for the Love & Hope Center, a local charity that helps underprivileged students learn life skills and become ready to enter the workforce when they grow up, Morven Smith from Australia carefully arranged the goods — all made by the center’s students — and decorated them with the kangaroo and koala stuffed animals from her home country.
“The students learned sewing at the center,” she said. “They made storage boxes, bags, candles, and Christmas wreaths. All of them are nicely done.”
Notably, part of the proceeds at IWB will be donated to the school’s Parent Support Association (PSA) to fuel additional activities that directly enhance the students’ experience over the course of the year.
Bringing the community together was not the only way IWB has invigorated the local area.
At the invitation of SIS, the Shekou Management and Service Center for Expats (MSCE) hosted a booth at Saturday’s bazaar, offering intangible cultural heritage experiences, a raffle, and free on-site consultation services.
“While we introduce MSCE and its services at the bazaar, we also strengthen our relationships with the international community and get closer to our expat friends,” Tao Dandan, deputy director of MSCE, said.
Kanabar represented SIS to attend the launching ceremony of the Center for International School Exchange and Cooperation in Zhaoshang Subdistrict on Dec. 1.
He felt that the school can leverage on the center and other official service platforms from the local authority to extend SIS’ social outreach.