Campus groups team up to throw Chinese New Year celebration

To celebrate the Year of the Monkey, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, Korean American Student Association and Spider Nights teamed up for the first time to host a Chinese New Year’s celebration last Friday night.

The collaboration provided not only a wider audience range but also a larger budget. This allowed CSSA to purchase more food and beverages. It also brought a wider range of student performances and activities.

The budget increased from approximately $200 to $500, a 150 percent increase from last year.

The celebration was divided into three parts.

The first was the Chinese New Year extravaganza, which included student performances ranging from a live band to a magic show.

A lion dance, a form of traditional dance in China where performers wearing a lion costume mimic a lion’s movement, from four VCU students followed.

The last part focused on interactive activities, such as calligraphy practice.

“We tried to allow Chinese students to have a fun Chinese New Year even though they couldn’t be home for the festivities,” junior Gao Han said.

Han is the vice president of public relations for CSSA. She estimated 130-140 people attended, while only 115 signed up. Last year, around 100 people attended.

“We also wanted students who were interested in the Chinese culture to experience the attraction of traditional cultural activities first-hand,” Gao said.

Gao estimated about 20 percent of the attenders were non-Chinese students. They were able to attract more students this year because the collaboration provided a wider range of broadcast, she said.

Besides students, Richmond faculty and staff attended as well.

Vincent Wei-cheng Wang, the associate dean of arts and sciences, said his students invited him to the celebration. Wang brought his family to “show support and share the festivity,” and he said he was “impressed by the attendance at this event and the talents shown by our students.”

Lisa Miles, associate director of Common Ground and supervisor of the event, enjoyed seeing the mix of students most. It is always exciting to see students from different backgrounds sharing a meaningful experience together, she said.

Miles said she believed this event marked a good start toward collaboration between multiple organizations.

But Miles also said the event could have been “seamless” and “featured the strengths of all groups” if they had started the conversation earlier.

Miles said she hoped to work toward the goal of a “unified, inclusive New Year celebration that all students would feel comfortable at.”

Contact reporter Tina Liu at tina.liu@richmond.edu.