Ushering in the Chinese Year of the Pig, Landon celebrated the China Roundtable of Washington, a cultural and educational event it hosts annually.

Attended by dozens of participants from around the DC-Maryland-Virginia area as well as several regions of China, this year's roundtable featured Roy McCall, an expert Chinese historian and cultural author, and John Grobowski, an American business lawyer with nearly three decades of Chinese trade experience.

McCall spoke with the audience about the need to mend the cultural differences between China and the United States, as well as the importance of Americans and Chinese people "building bridges of empathy" through cultural exchanges.

Grobowski, who started studying Chinese language and culture in Taiwan and Beijing in 1980, discussed the legal and personal aspects of doing business in China, including simple practices that helped lead him to success: not just knowing Chinese law and policy, but also understanding the country's language, culture, and history.

"The goal of the Roundtable is to promote the US-China relations and enhance cross-cultural understanding between people in the two nations," said Xiaohong Yang Herrle, academic advisor of the Roundtable and director of the Chinese Scholastic Exchange Program.

The program also included several musical and dance performances by members of both Landon's Chinese Scholastic Exchange Program students and the Landon community.

"In this day and age, I find it extremely important that we understand the Chinese culture beyond what we see in the media," said Omar Ahmad '19, a Mandarin Chinese student. "Gaining that outlook is imperative to appreciating the entirety of the world."

To see a video of this year's China Roundtable, please click here.