CASA New Year

2013 is the Year of the Snake!

 

The Chinese-American Student Association celebrated the Chinese New Year on February 16, in the Great Hall in Coffman at 5:30pm.  I went with my friend Peter, who speaks fluent Chinese.  He is a member of the Chinese Student Union, which is a different organization that hosts events almost exclusively in Chinese.  The CASA event was in English with some Chinese translation, especially in the Past portion of the show.  Peter explained that most of the members of CASA are American citizens, so English was the first language for most of them and a few might not even speak Chinese at all.  This event was more for exposing people to Chinese culture, whereas the CSU events are for Chinese students to meet and hang out with other Chinese students. 

We walked in and were given a program with some coupons for Dairy Queen and Tea Garden.  

We saw this photo opportunity and definitely had to take advantage of it!

 

Popular American music was playing over the speakers, and it was definitely clear that most of the people there knew each other.  There were tables that members of CASA and their families could have purchased in advance, with oranges and traditional Chinese decorations on them.  There were also rows of chairs for the public, which is where we sat.  Everything was decorated in red and gold, which are the colors of China, and red is also a lucky color.   There were a lot of people who clearly knew each other, especially the members of CASA and their families. 

These pictures are from my cell phone because I forgot to bring my camera, so excuse the awful lighting quality.  

 The event was separated into the Past and the Present, with an intermission in between.  It began with a dragon dance done by the CASA board members, which was really cool.  This is an example of what the dragons looked like, but it's not from the event.  They had three of them, each manned by two of the girls.

 

 

This is the only picture I was able to get of the dragon dance:

A band played traditional Chinese songs on traditional Chinese instruments, and they had a soprano singer come to sing a song about the Year of the Snake

This portion of the event was very interesting, but they didn't explain a lot about the traditions in China or why they chose the songs or performances that they did.  I had to rely on Peter for explanations, and even with his knowledge of Chinese and the Chinese culture he still couldn't tell me very much.  This was a performance that was very confusing but interesting to watch: 

The Spririted Hua Dan

 

During the intermission we had free food and drinks, mostly traditional Chinese dishes but there was also Coke and Sprite to drink.  They had fried shrimp, white and fried rice, sesame balls, stuffed mushrooms, beef & broccoli, peppered vegetables, regular vegetables, and noodles.  In addition to the Coke (in glass bottles, which you never see anymore) and Sprite, there were water bottles and passion fruit, lychee, soymilk, and green tea drinks in cans.  I tried the soymilk drink, which was sweeter, thinner, and filmier than milk.  Peter looked at the ingredients and saw that it was made in Singapore with Canadian soybeans, and it contained only soymilk and cane sugar.  

After that there were games that required volunteers from the audience, and then a demonstration of a Chinese fighting style that was based on drinking and being drunk.  They invited more volunteers to come up and learn some of the moves, which was surprisingly successful.  These are the Papercutter Girls, who did a dance that resembled papercutting which is very popular in China.  

 

I really enjoyed the event, and I liked seeing the traditional Chinese dances, but I wish I had been able to find someone to interview about the culture because there wasn't very much extra information available.  

Analysis:
I think this event was a very good representation of Chinese-American culture.  It incorporated traditional Chinese customs with American aspects, and it felt like the crowd really enjoyed that mix.  Certain points were awkward because it was, after all, a student-run event and not professionally organized, but that didn't take away from the performances.  I was impressed with how much everyone valued the traditions, and seemed to appreciate being able to celebrate the Chinese New Year in this way.  There weren't very many traditional rituals, other than the food and decorations.  The New Year celebrations are traditionally drawn-out and involve lots of rituals for each of the first 15 days in February.  Because this was the last day, and technically not part of the traditional celebration, it makes sense that it was condensed into one small event.  It really focused on the Chinese culture and bringing the past and the present together in a way that everyone could enjoy, whether they were Chinese or not.  

Because I wasn't able to get a lot of background information from the event or from Peter, I looked up "Chinese Americans in Minnesota" and found this website for the Chinese American Association of Minnesota   It is the oldest and largest Chinese American organization in the state, and has been in place since 1951.  They are heavily involved in the community and the arts, and led me to this website about an exhibit at the Minnesota History Center in 2003.  It was called The Chinese-American Experience in Minnesota and focused on the experiences of Chinese immigrants in the 1900s.  The history was really interesting and informative, and I had already known that Asian immigrant experiences during World War II were less than pleasant.  This gave me a lot of insight into the role of the U of M in Chinese immigration: we have hosted thousands of Chinese immigrants since 1978, and I now understand why groups like CASA and the CSU are so large and popular.  Minnesota was a welcoming place for Chinese immigrants, and it continues that acceptance even today. 

On their website, it says anyone is welcome to join CASA, even if you're not Chinese, which I think sums up the entire event really well. This event really showed how Chinese-American students here at the U have assimilated into the culture of the US while still retaining their traditional values.  The members are able to move between the Chinese and American cultures so fluidly and it was great to witness their cultural flexibility.  I was expecting to feel much more isolated than I actually did; there was definitely no in-group mentality here despite the fact that a lot of the students knew each other.  It was a very welcoming atmosphere and I would absolutely go back to another CASA event.