Xin Nian Kuai Le! The Chinese Department ushered in the Year of the Tiger with its annual New Year’s Gala last Wednesday. Every Chinese class from level 100 to 641 entertained the audience with songs, dances, skits and videos in the popular show. Students in Chinese 100 and 120 kicked off the New Year’s celebration when they paraded around Commons during dinner, performing the festive lion and dragon dances. Instructor in Chinese Lixia Ma said, “Overall, we just wanted the school to know that it’s fun to learn Chinese.” As audience members poured into Kemper Auditorium for the rest of the performances, they received red envelopes filled with chocolates at the door. Traditionally, adults present children with money in these red envelopes, or hong bao. The judges, Chinese-speaking adults who do not teach in the Chinese Department, declared the skit “My Big Fat Liger Wedding” by Travis Conley’s 220 class winner of the show. In this fable, a tiger lady, played by Amanda Zhu ’13, and a lion, played by Toan Nguyen ’10, fall in love, despite complaints from their families that they should marry within their own species. This hilarious skit attempted to explain why ligers exist, and the acting made the audience double over in laughter. Chinese Instructor Ji He’s 620 class came in second place with its showcase of talents in “The Dancing Gate.” Peter Yang ’10 and Duncan Crystal ’10 sang solos to “We Are the World” while the rest of the class danced to choreography by Brenna Liponis ’10. The middle of the piece featured a martial arts competition between Jinzi Zhang ’11 and Stephen Xenakis ’1o. Zhang, who has trained seriously in martial arts from a young age, impressed the audience with her powerful kicks and seasoned form. According to He, “620 was really, really excited about the show. They wanted to do something special, something that would really hit the audience, something that would be sensational.” It turned out to be an opportunity in which “everybody could show their talents,” said He. Third place was Chinese 641’s skit “The Journey to the West,” a rendition of the widely-read Chinese legend portraying adventures of the powerful Monkey God, Sun Wukong. Though the class did not put on English subtitles to help non-Chinese speakers understand the story, audience members were able to gain a taste of ancient Chinese culture through this legend. Chinese 200’s music video to the song “Gongxi Gongxi!” opened the show. Another 200 class created a video to “I’ll Make a Man out of You” from Disney’s “Mulan.” The students reproduced the classic training scene in the movie, in which the wimpy, inexperienced soldiers go through endless hardships to become powerful warriors. Members of the class practiced with monkey sticks, climbed trees and hopped across desks to represent forging a river. After countless failures, they all improved and achieved their goals—in Chinese. Conley’s Chinese 300 class performed the legend of the zodiac, an ancient race among animals to receive the twelve positions open in the zodiac. Each student held an intricately-drawn portrait of the animal he or she represented. Jesse Bielasiak ’11 played the role of the lazy pig that spoke in English and came in twelfth place. Another Chinese 300 class taught by Li Jiang created a music video to the song “Supergirl.” The video portrayed a contest between two boys—Charles Peng ’11 and Mark Hanson ’11—for the love of the Supergirl, Shannon McSweeney ’11. Kerstin Brolsma ’11, a member Conley’s Chinese 300 class, said, “It was just fun to see that these [performers] were all kids I go to class with every day.” One of the most popular acts of the night was the musical “You Are My Supergirl” by He’s 220 class. This was the story of an intense cooking contest between Andrew Cho ’12 and Christopher Yang ’12, both fighting for the girl of their dreams, Hayley Choi ’12. Part of the musical took place in a music video, but the actual contest took place live in Kemper. In the end, Cho poisoned Yang’s concoction, and Choi fainted when she tasted it. However, she woke up again and chose Yang as the winner. All the actors spoke Chinese fluidly and were able submerge themselves in their characters. The assignment for the class was to base their act on vocabulary that they learned during the year, and the class was most interested in the vocabulary unit on food and cooking. He said, “It’s not like learning for a test. They’re actually using [the language], putting motion in it… They didn’t realize it, but in the end, the words and structures that last longest are the ones that they used in rehearsal or used in the show.” “I wanted [my students] to enjoy…the whole preparation, and during the preparation…they used a lot of Chinese,” said He. Chinese 520’s video “The Tea-Over” turned out to be a creative twist on the movie “The Hangover.” Instead of alcohol, the characters had drunk too much tea in their dorms. They substituted the tiger in the original movie with the lion from the Chinese Lion Dance. Finally, to go the whole length with Chinese culture, the characters paid ransom with packs of dumplings rather than with money. Aaron Finder ’13 said that “The Tea-Over” was his favorite act of the evening because the class “did a good job of imitating the movie but also putting in their own spin on it. I thought it was really humorous.” He’s 400 class recreated an episode of “Gossip Girl” with Chinese-speaking characters gossiping about their dates for Blue and Silver. “The fun thing about it…is for people who have watched Gossip Girl to see their friends imitating the characters in that show,” said He. He believed that the gala had something to offer for every audience member, even those who knew nothing about the Chinese language. She said, “I tried to not really do something very Chinese, but [rather] Chinese language based so that other audience members could enjoy and relate. “But I’m glad that there’s a mix of both traditional and modern pieces in the show so that everyone, no matter if you are interested in the culture or just interested in pop culture, can enjoy the show.” Roxanne Barry, Director of Summer Opportunities, said, “It’s fun to see over the years, the programs and the productions have actually gotten better.” Barry attended the gala not only to support her advisees in the show, but also to enjoy the festivities. “It’s fun to celebrate Chinese New Year. So that’s why I came,” she said.
