TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The National Immigration Agency (NIA) held an event marking the Dragon Boat Festival in Taoyuan on Saturday (June 1) for Taiwan’s new immigrants, featuring hands-on activities that allowed them to learn more about the country’s customs.

The event began with a dance performance presented by a group of new immigrants. The dance was followed by an interactive session featuring exciting kids and mascots from the Garlic Family (蒜頭家族) of the Audiovisual Communication Foundation (中華視聽傳播基金會).

As befitting the festival, participants tried their hands at wrapping zongzi, or rice dumplings, in Thai style. The Thai-style sweet zongzi are stuffed with glutinous rice mixed with coconut milk, which is quite different from those generally made in Taiwan. There was also a sampling session offering Vietnamese, and Taiwanese style zongzi.

Another highlight was an egg-balancing activity, which is often practiced during the Dragon Boat Festival. Children of the immigrant families were enthusiastically engaged in the activity. It was made even more fun by painting the eggs with various colors.

The NIA stated that it will continue to jointly hold such events with local governments and NGOs that help the immigrants adjust to Taiwan's society. The immigration authority also took the opportunity to promote the Global News for New Immigrants (新住民全球新聞網), a website dedicated to providing information on what’s happening around Taiwan in Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesia, Filipino, and Thai languages.