The number of newly reported COVID-19 cases continues its upward trend worldwide. Most of the foreign students at NCUE stayed in Taiwan during the Lunar New Year holidays. NCUE International and Cross-Strait Affairs Office (OICA), in conjunction with overseas student associations, organized a series of care activities, including a Spring Festival Party, for overseas students to help them feel less homesick and provide timely assistance.

At the Spring Festival Party, Filling of Warmth, not only did the OICA disseminate the information about personal precautions against the pandemic during the winter vacation, but it also celebrated the arrival of the Lunar New Year of the Ox with the students. President Ming-fei Chen and OICA Dean Ling-yu Wen presented the students with lucky bags and red envelopes. One of the OICA staff members dressed up as the "God of Wealth" and gave away candies, which symbolize happiness, to the students, providing them the festival experience with a warm atmosphere. Epidemic prevention measures such as mask-wearing, temperature measurement, hand disinfection, and spaced seating arrangement were implemented at the event.

President Chen expressed his hope that foreign students who were not able to return to their home countries due to the global epidemic could still feel the warmth during the festive season. As a hotpot meal is a usual ritual of family reunion for Taiwanese people, considering the practice of precautions, the OICA provided each student with a hotpot meal packaged in individual servings so that they could enjoy it separately at home. President Chen also expected that the students take necessary precautionary measures and take care of each other so as to experience a unique Lunar New Year in Taiwan.

Dean Wen pointed out that despite the severe epidemic, the OICA staff’s enthusiasm for their work remained unabated. Last semester, more than ten lectures and workshops and a series of care activities for foreign students were held, indicating that the OICA is always mindful of devoting itself to the care of them. She also urged the students to check in with their parents in their hometown from time to time, and wished the students a great new year of the Ox.

The event reached the climax when the "God of Wealth" unexpectedly arrived and gave away candies to the students. Then President Chen and Dean Wen presented the lucky bags to the student representatives, who gave New Year greetings respectively in return, making it an overflowing atmosphere of the Spring Festival; in addition, President Chen, Dean Wen, and two of the Division Heads of the International Office donated lucky draw prizes that quickly boosted New Year holiday vibes for the event.