A new club at UC San Diego in La Jolla is rooted in Chinese art, language and food, but its primary focus is on bridging the gaps among different cultures.

When second-year UCSD student Lydia Xie moved from Singapore to San Diego, she began to notice a general lack of understanding about Chinese culture, she said. Her interest grew as she read a social media thread of UCSD students discussing international students’ tendency to socialize with people from the same background.

Looking to foster cross-cultural sharing and understanding, Xie decided to form a new campus club, Lotus Bridge @ UC San Diego.

“We do have some Chinese student organizations on campus, but based on my understanding, they’re usually focused on having Chinese international students in those groups,” Xie said.

“[There’s] nothing wrong with that,” she added. “I think that is great for them to be finding community here in a foreign country. But for me … I would love to have a platform where we can share Chinese culture to other people who might not be as familiar with it.”

Lotus Bridge aims to unite diverse cultures, hold activities such as dessert-making and foster teamwork and leadership, Xie said. The group registered as a student organization in September, followed by a promotional push on social media starting Jan. 7 and its first general meeting Jan. 22.

Xie is the group’s founder and president. Other founding members are UCSD students Helena Ren, Qianqian Yang, Anny Ma and Chloe Zhang.

Yang, a fourth-year visual arts student, said she got acquainted with the group through a social media post.

“It kind of just popped up,” she recalled. “I never saw this before on campus, so I really wanted to join.”

Ma said the club offered a meaningful way of getting connected with the university in her freshman year as a sociology student.

Ahead of its first meeting, the club set up a table by the university’s Geisel Library to quiz fellow students on Chinese culture, such as when the Mid-Autumn Festival takes place (this year it’s Sept. 25) and how many tones are in the Mandarin language (four).

People who registered for the meeting were asked to fill out a form, with one of the prompts asking them about their level of familiarity with Chinese culture. On a scale of 1-10, most respondents scored themselves between three and seven, Xie said.

At the event, guests baked Chinese peach blossom pastries at Marshall College’s Umoja Community Kitchen. The pastries are a popular dish year-round, including during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

“[By] learning to make traditional pastries, we can understand the festival and the folk tales behind them,” Ma said. “We hope through baking, we can promote cross-cultural communication and enable people from different backgrounds to experience Chinese culture.”

Xie said she hopes the introductory event and others to follow will create unity among UCSD students.

“I think success for this club is just about boosting people’s understanding of Chinese culture,” she said. “I really want to build a community where everybody can be more empathetic and more understanding of people from different backgrounds.”

According to the Center for Student Involvement, UCSD is home to 692 student organizations for the 2025-26 academic year. See a full list at studentorg.ucsd.edu.

To learn more about Lotus Bridge @ UC San Diego, visit @lotusbridgeatucsandiego on Instagram. ♦