Chinese festival honors tradition

February 13, 2006 —

by Brandon Kish

SVSU alum Sharon Hsu performs during the 2006 Chinese Lantern festival.

by Brandon Kish

Physics professor Ming Tie Huang helps Bing Wu tune her instrument before performing in the festival. Wu, an SVSU alum, plays the zhong ruan and Huang plays the pipa.

SVSU students, faculty, and alumni performed in celebration of the Chinese Lantern Festival in the Rhea Miller Recital Hall on Saturday.

The program commenced with a parade of lantern-bearing children through the aisles.

"Lantern Festival is basically the end of two weeks of festivals in China," said Dr. Robert Yien, SVSU vice president for Academic Affairs and head of the sponsoring Chinese Cultural Awareness Group. "This event is important because people get the chance to see how one-fifth of the world's population celebrates its festivities."

The Lantern Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar in China. This falls on the night of the first full moon of the year, about 10 days after the Chinese New Year.

The Lantern Festival originated in the First Century when Emperor Ming Di of the Han Dynasty was hopeful to promote the learning of Buddhist doctrines. He ordered the lighting of lanterns as a symbolic means of paying homage to Buddha.

On Saturday, after children displayed lanterns of all shapes, colors, and sizes, there were 13 ethnically celebratory performances by various individuals.

Sharon Hsu, former student and web designer at SVSU, was the first and final act. She performed "Kung Fu Fan and Flag" and the "Silk Ribbon" dance, the first of which is meant to show the balance between the grace of Chinese dance and the great ability of Kung Fu.

"It is always good to come here and take part in my Chinese culture," Hsu said. "As a student, I always participated in Chinese events."

Hsu flew back to the area for the performance from El Paso, Texas. She has had extensive dance training and tours and teaches in various countries including Japan, Paraguay, and Malaysia.

Ming Tie Huang, a physics professor at SVSU, later performed a rhythmic solo with the pipa, an instrument that is native to China and must be plucked and strummed.

The math department's Zhidong Pan, the acting Master of Ceremony for the event, lightheartedly introduced one musical piece as "The Valentine's Day Song."

The actual name of the song was shown in the program to be "At Least, I Still Have You," and was performed by Yi Li. The lyrics were translated as meaning "If you are meant to be together, you will be together."