Saturday, Nov. 11, the College of William and Mary’s Taiwanese American Student Association hosted a Dumpling Night at the picturesque red brick Wesley House. Students from all over campus gathered at the free event to eat dumplings and learn more about Taiwanese culture.
Attendees entered to the flavorful scent of vegetables and the sounds of chatter and laughter. The building’s big room had tables arranged in a “U” shape with disposable plates and bowls containing the primary ingredients required to master the art of these dainty delicacies. In the kitchen, members of TASA were preparing a variety of fillings for the dumplings, some containing pork, and others more suitable for vegetarian and vegan students who also joined the event. Attendees were welcome to come in, sit at one of the tables, choose either the flour-based dumpling wrappers or rice papers and get to work.
With 2023 being TASA’s first year back on campus as an active club since prior to COVID-19, the new executive board sought to bring students back together through the best way they knew how: dumplings. TASA President Ashley Sun ’24 highlighted the event’s significance as an opportunity to share a meal with friends just in time for Thanksgiving and a learning experience for those looking to engage with Taiwanese culture.
“Dumplings, I think, are something in Taiwanese culture that the whole family makes together, and it can be a big bonding experience for people and a good memory,” Sun said. “We wanted to share that with people who might not have grown up Taiwanese or who grew up making dumplings in their own culture and want to come and share that with us. We thought it would be fun to do it together.”
Attendee Andrew Chen ’24 agreed that the hands-on, community-based event allowed students from inside and outside TASA to not only bond with each other, but also appreciate and share Taiwanese culture.
“This to me is a very, very nice community bonding moment, and it’s not only TASA folks,” Chen said. “A lot of folks came, just to have a fun time. To me, that’s what really sharing culture is about. Just having fun over time, it’s not going to be just a textbook dump of information.”
The students who joined the event engaged in the activity of wrapping dumplings in unique and different ways, and those who had more expertise were often teaching others how to effectively wrap the different fillings.
“I feel like [the event] is a good example of cultural appreciation because this is where dumplings originate from,” Melody Llinas ’24, another attendee, said. “So you can kind of learn how to properly make them from people who are willing to teach you.”
Chen said that the cultural significance of dumplings in both Taiwanese and Chinese culture is often celebrated at the start of the year during Lunar New Year to bring families together in the memory-building task of making dumplings.
“Everytime Lunar Festival comes around — so that’s like New Year’s for us — everybody is just making dumplings, like you always make it, so it’s a very important food,” Chen said.
Sun explained that another cultural significance of dumplings is that they are often connected with prosperity.
“Specifically for the Chinese New Year, you eat dumplings,” Sun said. “The more dumplings you eat, the more blessings you’ll have. It’s a big part of our culture.”
Members of TASA even shared some of their favorite memories regarding dumplings, which portrayed how ethnic recipes are often connected to one’s family and personal backgrounds. Llinas recalled one Christmas with her family where this special treat was present.
“We formed an assembly line, and we just made a bunch of dumplings at once,” Llinas said. “It was pretty fun because we got to designate roles, and as a kid, it just feels like you are being really active.”
For Sun, who said she felt a lack of ethnic food options during her freshman year due to the difficulty of cooking Taiwanese and other Asian foods when living on campus, events like TASA’s Dumpling Night hold special significance for her.
“In the dorm, it can be hard if you don’t have a pot, you can’t boil [the dumplings],” Sun said. “Also, to actually buy the dumplings that you like and grew up eating and taste good, I have to drive 20 minutes to Newport News.”
Sun emphasized that Dumpling Night has been very important as a successful TASA event and a way for the TASA team to feel closer-knit.
“This is our biggest event of the year so far, we haven’t done anything like this,” Sun said. “The turnout has been really good, so we’ve been really excited about that. Just planning what we’re going to do, the recipe, and who’s going to be there, who’s going to help volunteer, if anyone has any expertise in making dumpling dough, stuff like that helped me get a lot closer to club members and also my executive [board].”
