By Nick Jaccaci ’18, Contributor
It might be the year of the monkey, but this party was no monkey business. The Chinese New Year party consisted of two halves: the interactive activities and the performances. The party began with many different activities to choose between. There were five activities to participate in, each one teaching people something different about Chinese culture. The first activity was paper cutting. Given a certain outline, either a Chinese character or a monkey, one could cut out the desired shape. This is similar to the Chinese New Year tradition of the spring couplets where it is tradition to cut out good luck phrases and hang them on your door frame. The next activity was paper folding. Here one could fold paper into a traditional little emperor or a monkey. Next was a coloring activity. Simply put, this is where all the children were to hang tight while their parents explored. There were drawings based off Chinese folklore and more monkeys. The next and arguably hardest activity was calligraphy. Here, one used an ink brush to paint Chinese characters. Calligraphy is hard since in order to make the characters look good, one must use precise, delicate strokes. Messing up a little could ruin your work and shirtsleeve. Finally, the dumpling-making station was the activity everyone wanted to try. Here, one could make their own dumplings using basic ingredients. One participant, Davis McMaster ’16, claims that dumpling making is “a lot more fun than [he] thought it would be,” adding sarcastically that he’s “pretty much Chinese now.” He and his friends were adding the sixth layer on their attempt to create an eight-layer dumpling when I asked this question. I don’t know how the dumpling came out, but I hope they succeeded. Eating was also a delight. After the dumplings were finished being made, they were boiled and then eaten. History teacher Merle Black called both the party and the dumplings fabulous, stating that he “wouldn’t mind eating dumplings on the last day of [his] life.”
After the activities were finished, the performances began. The first performance was a traditional lion dance. A lion dance is essentially a giant puppet with one person in the mouth area as the anterior legs and controlling the mouth where the other person is the hind legs. A man wearing a traditional Chinese helmet-mask hybrid (who was actually Frank Weston ‘19) led two lions to the dining terrace where they performed. The dance was an interesting one, with lions jumping over one another and “spitting” candy out into the audience. After this pleasant performance, everyone went to the Keeler Theatre for the student performances. Now, if you weren’t there, I actually was the MC for the whole show. I spoke Chinese to announce the next performer. Jessie Lang ’18 helped me out by translating for the audience. I would just like to say thanks to Jessie again for her participation on such a short notice. The first performer was the Head of School Tony Jaccaci with a Chinese poem. After that, Anthony Wang ’19 performed some karate. The karate, which he performed with a fan, is actually a family tradition that is passed down through the generations. After Wang, Tony Wen ’18 performed the rap song, “Nunchacku”. After listening to Wen sing that, you can’t see him the same way. He was rapping at Guns and Ships speed. After Wen was Lily Yu ‘16, who played the Gu Zhen. It’s an instrument that is similar to a harp, except the strings are on a board. In all my time in China, I never heard someone play it as beautifully as she did. After Yu, Bill He ‘17 sang “Nan Shan Nan”. Everyone was blown away at his singing ability. I personally wish that one day he joins the musical. The next song, “Dao Xiang”, was a group effort and the final song, 听妈妈的话 (listen to your mother), was sung by David Yang ‘16, Wen, and He. After the performance, Mr. Jaccaci taught the audience the cultural importance of the 红包 (hongbao). With that, the Chinese New Year party ended. Overall, everyone enjoyed the performances. Some opinions include four-year-old Michael Wood saying that the show was “good” or Lorae Stojanovic ’18 claiming the show was “very, very, very good.” Overall, I believe it was a strong party that can easily become an annual activity, and I hope it does.
Image Source: http://allnewyeargreetings.com/happy-chinese-new-year-2016-wallpaper-happy-chinese-new-year/
