The powerful boom of drums began this year’s Chinese Week Gala, as a character entered the stage and began to illustrate, in a martial-arts inspired dance, the Chinese tradition of the Lion Dance. As the lion entered the stage, he leapt around to the percussion of the drums and cymbals, performing various symbolic moves to protect and bless the viewers and community. After the end of the dance, the Eastern Michigan University Asian Martial Arts Studio demonstrated some martial arts moves, illustrating the strength involved in the dance’s movements.
The lion dance was followed by a welcome speech by the head of the department of world languages, Rosemary Weston-Gil. After Weston-Gil, EMU President Sue Martin took the stage with a keynote speech that addressed the importance of Chinese language in the EMU and Michigan community, and her observations between her own travels to China.
“[It’s] an amazing change in just 18 years, what I saw in the big cities,” Martin said.
These changes included a significant presence of Buick in cities like Shanghai and Beijing. In light of this, Martin said suggested Eastern “embrace higher education and invite people from all over the world.”
Following Martin’s speech were more performances from the Ann Arbor Chinese Traditional Music Ensemble, which included traditional Chinese songs, as well as a piece showcasing their Zither player. All the pieces came with an introduction explaining the story of the music being performed.
Then, the Ann Hua dance group performed a traditional folk dance, a dance characterized by long sleeves fluttering into the air. The group would perform one more piece in the program, a traditional dance from the Xingjiang province set to the modern song “Ba Lang Zai.”
Other acts included a flute solo by Rebecca Zhu, a Master’s student of Science in Accounting, a performance of “Songs on Fishing Boats at Dusk.” A group of Mandarin students here at Eastern performed a cheerful nursery song and a traditional Taiwanese folk song, accompanied by Joshua DeVriendt on guitar and a slide show of photographs of a Taiwan-based photographer.
Another feature of the gala event was the exhibition of traditional Chinese costume, which featured everything from modern Cheongsam and Qipao to costumes from many historical dynasties. Accompanying the historical costumes were stories of individuals from the time period, as Chinese students of EMU walked down the auditorium steps demonstrating costumes said individuals might have worn.
The gala performance concluded with a performance by the Chinese Festival Orchestra, a group which brought together many ages and races to perform Taiwanese folk songs and a popular song called “Ye-Lai-Xiang (midnight fragrance).”
“I thought it went pretty well,” said Bran Sonvordenken, current president of Mei Hua Tong Xue Hui, the association of Chinese learners at EMU, who put on the events of Chinese Week. Sonvordenken, a sophomore, said of the event “it’s a lot of fun, if you want to perform, its open to you.”
“I feel very proud of all the American people who played in the performance,” freshman Congzhe Xu said, who tutors in Chinese.
“There were some unexpected things,” attendee Sasha Igwe, senior, said of the gala, “I liked watching the musicians play.”
The gala was the only the kick-off to Chinese week, which continued with a lecture on Chinese gift-giving and relationships and a demonstration of martial arts, has more events yet to go.
The Mei Hua Tong Xue Hui welcomes students to celebrate the Chinese New Year tonight with Chinese games 4-6 p.m. in the EMU Student Center room 350. Tomorrow they will have karaoke 8 p.m. in the Student Center Auditorium. Chinese Week 2011 will wrap up Saturday with the playing of the film “A woman, a gun, and a noodle shop,” directed by Zhang Yimou.
