By Tommy Cha
CSA’s Chinese Lunar New Year!
New Year is here! Yes, new year has passed on January 1, but there is also another new year celebration that takes place later than that.
It is the Lunar New Year! Although westerners will see it as Chinese New Year, it is not just for Chinese people, but other ethnic groups who celebrate the Lunar New Year too. Vietnamese, Korean, Singaporean, and many other Asian groups celebrate the Lunar New Year.
But the most common celebration we see in the local area is the Chinese Lunar New Year. With that, on Sunday, February 18, Western Washington University’s Chinese Student Association put on a great New Year Celebration for the Year of the Dog.
The event took place at the PAC from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. CSA partnered up with the community of Bellingham, and invited Western’s President, a council member of Bellingham, and the County, and a former Bellingham Mayor, in which they are all in support of the Chinese people.
Not only did CSA (Chinese Student Association) partner up with the greater Bellingham community, but also with the greater Chinese community in Bellingham. CSA paired up with the NWCCA (Northwest Chinese Cultural Association), a non-profit, non-political organization located here in Bellingham. I talked to Terrance Wong, the Vice President and student of WWU about working with a different organization, and he said it was pretty hectic.
“I think that communication could’ve been better and following through what was the original plan would’ve been easier for everyone,” Wong said.
He told me it was because some of the performers did not follow directions of the showrunners that well.
“It was hard to get things done because there were a lot of changes done to our original script and performance schedule. I would say that it was stressful to get things done, but in the end, it turned out alright,” he continued. I guess you could say that running an event with a lot of attendees is a handful to take care of but it’s also important to celebrate the subject at hand.
I asked Wong what the Lunar New Year meant to him.
“To me, it’s a time to where you spend time with the family, eat good meals, and collect red envelopes,” he said.
I also asked another student, who happens to be the President of CSA, Fraser Lin, when I had some time to speak with him. He told me that Lunar New Year is “a time, to me personally, to celebrate my culture, eat good and interact with people I probably don’t see too often.”
CSA hosted this event with the sponsorship and support of the NWCCA to celebrate the Year of the Dog. The performers consisted of the Silk Road Dancers, Mei Hua Chinese School, singers from Whatcom Community College, a Qipao show, instrument players and a calligraphy demonstration.
The Silk Road Dancers did a lot of traditional Chinese dances, which included Chinese ribbon dancing, a Mongolian dance, a Northern dance and other dances that are from different regions or time periods. They performed dances that were from the Song Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, along with a modern dance.
Mei Hua Chinese School had students who performed poem recitals, singing songs, and a Gong Fu Fan performance.
There were two instrument performances. The instruments played were the Gu Zheng, and the Er Hu.
The Gu Zheng is a plucked string instrument that has been around for more than 2,500 years. It has at least 16 strings, but the modern-day Gu Zheng usually have 21 strings and is about 64 inches long. They sound very calming and beautiful.
Unlike the Gu Zheng, the Er Hu is much smaller, and has two strings, hence the word, “二” (er) which means “two” in Chinese, and “胡“ (hu), a word that is used for bow instruments.
Both the Gu Zheng and Er Hu require a lot of skills to master, and both sound equally soothing. The Er Hu is so versatile that Shawn Liu, one of the Er Hu players was able to play “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran. He dedicated the song to all the lovers post-Valentine’s Day.
Performances were not the only attraction for the event. Between the performances, there was an intermission for food and for the people there to get together and talk.
“The food was so good! I honestly thought there would be just small appetizers, but there was more than enough to fill everyone up,” Western student Shazmi Hipol said.
The food provided consisted of dumplings, egg rolls, crab rangoon, sushi, cake, sugar puff cakes, oranges, sesame balls and other snacks. Although they were only appetizers, the crowd seemed to enjoy the food that was given. Many responses I received were that they were much better than the usual caterers that make the foods for the campus events.
All in all, the Lunar New Year Celebration was filled with joy, excitement and a friendly community that welcomed everybody in. With New Year’s still being celebrated for another two weeks, take the time to learn about the Lunar New Year and celebrate with your friends!