Chinese New Year was brought to Concordia Saturday evening. Students and community members filled the Centrum Feb. 9 to celebrate.
About 400 people attended this year, according to Chinese professor Tao Ming. This number in- creased from the 350 in attendance last year.
This is the fifth year Concordia has celebrated Chinese New Year. It was originally celebrated in Jones, but because attendance has increased in recent years, the celebration was moved to the Centrum.
Concordia catered the event. Chinese food was provided and performances included Chines tongue twisters, songs, poetry, dances, comedy routines and martial arts. Students in the Taekwondo Club broke wood boards using their hands, feet and arms on stage.
Volunteers were challenged on stage to see how many beans they could place into a cup using chop- sticks; the winner placed 26 beans.
Chinese students from Moor- head High School and Fargo High School also performed at the event.
“I enjoyed seeing all the different shows,” said Sarah Zhang, one of the event emcees.
Students in the tri-college area and the community were all targeted when advertising for the event. Professor Ming wanted to attract a wide variety of people to the event.
“My hope is that this event will help Concordia College promote the Chinese program and make the
Chinese program more visible to people in this town,” Ming said.
The Chinese New Year lasts from Jan. 1 to Jan. 15. High school students and college students get one month off of school to celebrate. The celebration includes festivals, spending time with friends and family and attending parties. It is the most important festival in all of Asia, Ming said.
“It’s kind of like Christmas in America,” he said.
The Centrum was decorated in red because red is seen as the color of good luck and is a celebratory color.
“I would like to claim that the Chinese New Year event here is the best in the town,” Ming said. “We have the biggest of Chinese New Year celebration.”
Kayla Culver, ’15, is a writer for the Reviews Blog. She is a multi-media journalism and communications (concentrating in public relations) major at Concordia. With her degree she hopes to break into the music industry and become a music journalist.
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