The Wake

Illustration by Ben Alpert

A blending of cultures was the theme at the Chinese New Year Celebration on January 26 in Coffman Union’s Great Hall, presented by the Chinese-American Student Association (CASA).

The event’s opening performance, a traditional lion dance, was followed by a tongue-in-cheek Justin Timberlake tribute by Jimmy Huang, who shared emcee duties with Catherine Wang. Pop and R&B ballads played during the intermission as guests dined on Chinese fare like rice, noodles, and stir-fry. Chinese-American university students performed “Canta Per Me,” an Italian-titled song from the Japanese anime series Noir.

The celebration, though highlighting Chinese culture, clearly embraced the principles of diversity and acceptance championed by CASA. According to President Jennifer Liu, their mission is to promote diversity. Despite the common assumption that only students of Chinese heritage can join the group, Liu says, membership is open to “everyone, not just Chinese-Americans.”

CASA holds biweekly meetings in Coffman 219. Membership in the organization costs $5 and entitles students to a 10 percent discount on meals at some local Chinese restaurants. Most of the club’s meetings are social gatherings such as movie and game nights, said Liu; a few larger events are held each year. The New Year Celebration is their biggest annual event.

The Chinese celebrate the New Year from the first day of the lunar year to the fifteenth. Traditions for the festivities include visiting relatives, praying to the gods, setting off firecrackers, and giving red packets of money to younger family members. Each year is presided over by one of the animals of the Chinese zodiac; 2008 is the Year of the Rat.

CASA’s celebration was sponsored by the Asian-American Student Union, the Student Activities Office Administrative Grant, the Diversity Education Fund, and Coca-Cola. Members of other student groups, including the Philippine and Korean Student Associations, volunteered at the event. By intermission, about 470 people had arrived in the Great Hall, Treasurer Grace Hung said. University students and staff received free admission, while members of the public paid a $5 entry fee.

The show’s opening lion dance, a traditional event for the first day of the year, was performed by the Ha family. Two people inside an elaborate, colorful lion costume danced through the crowd and onto the stage to the beat of drumming and other percussion. The emcees explained that the lion is a traditional guardian spirit in China, and lion dancers are hired by businesses to ward off bad luck. Near the end of the performance, the lion unfurled a banner reading “Welcome,” fittingly kicking off the evening.

Pianist Kai-Li Cheng and violinists Hsuan-Wen Lin and Yinna Wang followed the lion dance with a traditional Taiwanese folk song. A children’s group from the Chinese-American Association of Minnesota’s Chinese Dance Theater then performed a dance called the Chinese Node.

After intermission and dinner, University student Vivian sang “If I Had 1,000 Years” and “My Last Fan.” Her performance was followed by another dance, Mountain Flowers, from the Chinese Dance Theater. This second half of the evening including drawings for raffle tickets and trivia questions about the celebration of the Chinese New Year between each performance. Prizes were given out by the evening’s “mascot,” a person dressed as a rat in honor of this new Year of the Rat.

Florence Wong spoke about the work of the China AIDS Orphan Fund. There is an especially high concentration of HIV/AIDS in central China due to past government-sponsored blood-selling schemes that used unsanitary practices, Wong explained. The fund, created by University of Minnesota medical resident Steven Wang in 2003, works with local non-government organizations to try to provide education and humanitarian services to children orphaned by AIDS in central China. Proceeds from the New Year Celebration went to the fund, and the event featured an exhibit called “Living Dreams in a Dying Village,” displaying the hopeful drawings of children from AIDS-affected villages.

Following Wong’s speech, the final performance of the night was “Canta Per Me,” played by pianist Franklin Li, violinists Tom Hong and Meng Wang, violist Xin Zhang, and guitarist Di Lin. After a few final remarks from CASA’s officers and the emcee, the event closed to the tune of N*Sync’s “Bye Bye Bye,” an appropriate end to the modern American celebration of Chinese culture.