[caption id=”attachment_2449" align=”alignright” width=”407" caption=”Freshman economics major Ningwei Li, blindfolded, tries to identify his girlfriend, freshman electrical engineering major Emmeline Zhu, during the “couple game.””]
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The STAMP Student Union got a taste of Chinese culture Thursday night when the Chinese Student Association hosted its annual Lunar New Year Banquet in the Grand Ballroom.
The event, described by CSA President Nicolette Yeh as CSA’s “signature event,” featured an assortment of food, performances such as a lion dance, martial arts, dancing, and interactive games.
“Our goal for Lunar is to enjoy celebrating the holiday with friends at school, and also introduce it to anyone interested in Chinese culture,” Yeh said.
Last spring, the event sold out. Yeh, a senior government and politics major, hopes to follow up on that success in the future by enabling more people to join in the fun with a larger venue.
During the show, CSA representatives invited audience members up to the front in order to participate in a variety of games.
Freshman economics major Ningwei Li was called up on stage with girlfriend freshman electrical engineering major Emmeline Zhu for the “couple game.” Li, blindfolded, and asked to identify his girlfriend of nearly 21 months by feeling her and seven other “ladies’” hands. Little did Li know, the ladies were actually male volunteers.
“I thought the game would have been interesting to watch and pretty funny. It would have been really embarrassing if I picked the wrong person,” Li said. “It was kind of hard for me to do it but I definitely liked the idea.”
Prizes were awarded to lucky audience members through raffles that were drawn throughout the night. This was meant to help celebrate 2012 as the year of the dragon because the dragon is considered in Chinese culture to be the luckiest animal.
The performances, meanwhile, ranged from student groups like the B-Terps break dancing group to individuals like sophomore mechanical engineering major Mark Ragland, whose high-intensity martial arts performance was only the second performance he has made in front of a CSA audience.
Ragland, who has been involved with traditional Tae Kwon Do for six years, has expanded his specialties the past three years to include styles such as the 6-foot-long bo staff weapon style that he showed off Thursday. This self-proclaimed specialty of his was justified when Ragland placed ninth overall last year in creative weapons in the North American Sport Karate Association World Martial Arts Championships.
Hongyi Xia, a sophomore aerospace engineering major, gave the night’s other individual performance, a traditional Chinese folk dance.
Xia, who has been dancing “on and off” since elementary school, said that she has danced some ballet but does mostly Chinese dances like this for most of her life.
Xia praises CSA’s efforts and encourages others to attend next year.
“The banquet was really fun. I was very impressed with all the performances. CSA did a great job organizing and advertising the event, along with the performers,” she said. “People who are unsure [about attending] should definitely check it out. It’s a great way to see how we celebrate the Lunar New Year.”
All aspects of the event were planned and organized by CSA, but this year is the first time that the Robert H. Smith School of Business co-sponsored and contributed funds to the event.
“Working with the people from the business school has been awesome,” Vice President of External Affairs Steven Wang, a junior operations management and information systems major, said. “They have been very professional and open to discussion which definitely helped us improve what we have to offer.”
“I was very pleased with the turnout and the effort that all of our executive board members put into making the event run smoothly. I hope it was an enjoyable experience for all!” Yeh said. “We couldn’t have enjoyed such great success without the help of all of our dedicated volunteers, exciting performers, and hard working board members.”
