Bailey Thompson | News Editor
The final year in a 12-part cycle, 2019 marks the Year of the Pig in Chinese culture. In order to commemorate this occasion, the WOU Chinese Students and Scholars Association and the Office of International Education and Development hosted Western’s annual Chinese New Year Celebration on Jan. 31 in the Pacific Room of the Werner University Center.
Having thoroughly packed the room and fed their guests an authentic Chinese dinner, the organizers of the event started off the night’s performances with a lion dance by visiting performers from White Lotus Crew in Portland. Emerging from the back of the room, the two lions made their way into the room while dancing and interacting with the crowd. They launched oranges and lettuce out at the audience, and their performance concluded with confetti and banners saying, “Happy New Year” and “Best Wishes To All.”
With the audience engaged, the emcees then took the stage and introduced themselves as Jenny Yang, Ankit Shrestha, Jingxiong Soh and Qiong Luo.
While sharing the traditions she remembers of celebrating the new year in China, Luo said that her experience involves eating, spending time with family and one other notable thing.
“The fun part is the younger kids can get a red envelope which is always filled with money from their parents or relatives,” said Luo.
Before the other performances would begin, the emcees introduced President Rex Fuller, who made a few remarks about the significance of this particular year.
“This year, 2019, is especially important that we take a moment and really thank and welcome our visiting students and scholars from China and Nepal and other parts of the world,” said Fuller. “You make our lives brighter, you make our campus better and you portray a global atmosphere for all our students, faculty and staff.”
Dr. Fuller also went on to talk about the personalities of people who were born in pig years: 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007 and 2019.
“What are some of the characteristics of those born in the years of the pig? They may not stand out in the crowd, but they are very realistic,” said Fuller. “Others may be all talk and no action — pigs are the opposite. Though not wasteful spenders, they will enjoy life. They love entertainment and will occasionally treat themselves. They are a bit materialistic, but this motivation for them is to work harder.”
Fuller then concluded his description of those born in pig years by highlighting the harmony that pigs strive for, which is also something he also emphasized that our world needs.
“Pigs are gentle and rarely lose their temper, and when they do, it’s never dramatic. They’ll always try to compromise and settle things quickly because their goal in life is for everyone to live in harmony,” said Fuller. “What a nice thought, everyone living in harmony.”
After this speech, the main entertainment of the night began. Moving through the program, there were fourteen different songs and dances that were performed, ranging from Beijing Opera to a modern hip-hop routine. And, while many of the performers were traditional college-aged students, there were also a couple of routines that featured Chinese women of a variety of ages dancing together.
Another highlight of the performances was a dance called “The Journey of Chasing Dreams,” which was accompanied by an artist creating Chinese calligraphy onstage. As the dancers moved around her, the artist wrote out four Chinese words which she said could be translated to say “better wishes for all in the pig year” in English.
“As you know, the calligraphy is a very big part of Chinese culture,” said the artist. “The words I write today is called official script. This is a very well-known and classic style of words, but in China most people now write with regular script — from left to right — but in ancient times people would write their names in right to left.”
One dance which had a familiar story for many was titled “Butterfly Lovers,” a dance with a story that was similar to one very well-known in America.
“I heard it was like the Chinese version of Shakespeare’s tragic classic Romeo and Juliet,” said Soh.
As a finale to the night, a number of Western’s current Chinese students and scholars came together to sing “Love My China,” donning matching Western t-shirts.
Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu
Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton
