For people who are Chinese or interested in Chinese culture, the Chinese Students’ Association’s ‘China Nite” dinner and entertainment definitely brought a blast of excitement and fun. Taking place 10 days after Chinese New Year, the celebration was both elaborate and authentic.
As a native of China, the great food from Shanghai Restaurant gave me a feeling of being back home for the New Year. Enjoying good food around a table with friends has been a tradition in China for thousands of years, and it was nice to be able to continue this tradition at UR.
Like Christmas in America, Chinese New Year is the time for family gathering. Every year during this time, people take off work and go back home to spend time with family and friends who they are too busy to see during the year.
The ‘Nite Show” started with UR President Joel Seligman wishing the community a great year of the Ox.
In Chinese tradition, the ox means strength and prosperity. The ox is also related to the bull in the stock market as well. Hopefu
lly, in the year of ox, the economy will recover and prosper with a ‘bull” market.
The entertainment portion of the night began with a video entitled ‘MTV: M.A.D.E. in China.” The show was woven in between each performance and was definitely the highlight of the night, as it made for the most humorous part.
The storyline of the video was the epic tale of a cowardly and shy ox growing up into a big strong ox.
Freshman Ricky Li’s performance as the ox brought hundreds of laughs in the theater.
In the film, the ox was a UR student working for a local Chinese restaurant as a part-time job.
After being robbed by local gangs, he decided to toughen up so he wouldn’t be taken advantage of again, eventually becoming a strong, popular guy. The ultimate message, however, was that you should always stay true to your heart and your personality.
For people interested in traditional Chinese dances, ‘China Nite” was a good
introduction. The Chinese Dance Company of Rochester, a group composed of younger children, performed a beautiful ribbon dance to a typical Chinese holiday song. Another dance performed by the same children was done to Shanbei folk music.
UR students provided one more ribbon dance and a fan dance. For the native Chinese, like myself, these performances got a little boring in their attempts to overwhelmingly display traditional Chinese elements. But for people new to Asian culture, these were certainly entertaining acts.
The less-traditional performances proved to be exciting as well, for both native Chinese students and Americans, combining elements of traditional China with modern America for an interesting new twist.
For example, juniors Nancy Hung and Lily Li’s love song, ‘Da Xiong,” fit well with a theme reflecting both Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day.
The fashion show was another humorous moment of the night, while the modern dance ‘Biao Han,” a repertoire from past years, definitely brought the highest excitement to the crowd.
One upperclassman told me not to expect too much from ‘China Nite.” But I thought this year’s show was quite impressive. It was a creative effort that provided ample entertainment for its audience. I would definitely give the evening two thumbs up.
Peng is a member of
the class of 2012.
