Students celebrated the Chinese New Year and shared their culture as they welcomed the Year of the Monkey on Feb. 12.

The lunar festival included traditional Chinese food and performances from Chinese international students, as well as students studying Chinese.

Ke’Arrius Brunson, a political science major who has been taking Chinese classes at TCU for a year, said his passion for Chinese began when he took a trip to China to study abroad.

He had the chance to show all he learned when he sang K-Pop for the lunar festival.

Brunson said his fascination for Chinese culture is the reason he will be back to participate next year. He was one of many performing in the lunar festival who were not of Chinese descent.

Alex Xu, the Lunar Festival coordinator, said the event is a great place to take in good culture and food with Chinese students.

Xu said the success of the festival at TCU is in part due to the inclusion of non-traditional Chinese speakers in the event’s performances.

Following the performances, students played games and practiced their Chinese by talking to one another in the language.

Xu said Chinese New Year is like Christmas for many people, and getting to celebrate it really is special.

The next event the Chinese Club will be hosting is the “Running Man” event, which is meant to relieve stress, at the end of the semester.