Every year, the Chinese Student and Scholar Association (CSSA) celebrates the New Year with the Michigan Tech community with a feast and performance reflective of the Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, traditions. The annual event has been a showstopper in recent years with a huge variety of dishes and two hours of live performances including dancing, music and comic dialogues taking place at the Rozsa. The 2018 Chinese Night Celebration will be no different with dinner beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 17, in the MUB commons. The show will be held at the Rozsa from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
According to Houjun Ding, president of the CSSA and a first-year graduate student in Forest Sciences, this year’s performances are bound to be better than ever. “The girls doing the traditional dance started practicing last semester in September or October. There will be some K-pop dancing as well.” He spoke very highly of the Kung Fu performances that are scheduled for Saturday’s festivities. The performer, according to Houjun, “has been practicing Kung Fu for ten years. He will be doing the mantis move from Kung Fu Panda.”
When asked what he is looking forward to most about Chinese Night this year, Houjun spoke of the special, traditional ingredients that CSSA has been able to bring to Houghton from Chicago in preparation of Saturday’s feast. “We have two chefs this year, and will be presenting three different cooking styles from China. We will have really spicy food, some classic, salty food, and sweet and sour as well. There will be ten different dishes in total, plus soup.” Houjun informs, “In China, there are eight different traditional cooking styles. The salty one is called Lu, and it comes from Eastern China. It’s the oldest and most classical style of food. The second one is called Sichuan…it’s spicy. The last one is Yue and comes from Guangdong Province. Traditionally, the taste depends on the weather. So in the southern part, where it rains a lot, people eat it spicy. Where it’s kind of hot, people eat something light, such as sweet and sour.”
After enjoying their dinner and heading over to the Rozsa, guests at Chinese Night will also enjoy opportunities for audience participation. “There will be games during the performance as well. We will be doing a prize draw this year, with prizes from Walmart and Ming’s restaurant.” The CSSA desires to make the event inclusive and has made some improvements to their performances based on feedback from last year. The cross-talk (or “shuochang”) performances, performed primarily in Chinese, will now have subtitles to make the lively, humorous experience of shuochang more accessible for English-speakers.
To reserve your ticket in advance, call Ticketing Operations at (906) 487-2073. The Early Bird price for dinner and the show is $12, while the full price of both is $15. The children’s price for both is $8, and the show alone costs $5. CSSA hopes that you will join them for a night of celebration and a magnificent taste of Chinese culture.
