Ed Zhao ’17: A Lunar New Year Festival, a celebration featuring performances not only by Episcopal students, but also by members from neighboring Chinese communities, was held at Episcopal for the first time this February. “When I first came to EA to start the Chinese program, I was amazed at the students’ enthusiasm in the Chinese language and culture. I wanted their talents to be shown through different school activities, and so I thought that students should be provided with a platform to combine the two in one special presentation,” explained Wei Yang, Episcopal Mandarin teacher and faculty advisor for EA’s China Club.
Yang continued, “Chinese New Year is the most widely celebrated festival in China and in Chinese communities all over the world. There is no better way to tell that to our students than having them experience that themselves.”
EA’s celebration was comprised of almost 30 shows, intermingled with music, skits, and other presentations. Musical performances showcased Chinese instruments such as the erhu, a two-stringed Chinese violin, and the guzheng, a Chinese zither, performances by individual students, and a traditional piece by the US Chamber Ensemble. The festival also included dances, Chinese yo-yo performances, and skits of typical Chinese classes. During intermission, there was a wide selection of Chinese food, such as dumplings and lo mein.
Brian Seam ‘16 and Genevieve McCormick ‘15 were the hosts of the three hour long show. To their credit, Yang recalled, “A Chinese teacher from a local Chinese school commented that ‘[McCormick’s] Chinese sounded so pure and accurate.’ That was a real compliment to our students’ achievement.”
Student reactions were quite positive as well. Seam noted, “It was the first time that we had put everything together because we had never rehearsed as a group before, and the show went quite smoothly.” Felicia Zhu ‘17 added, “I think there was a lot of talent, and I liked how the celebration showcased each Mandarin class… The food was really good too, and we were taught the tea ceremony and how to make dumplings, which was fun.” Chris Stein ‘16, President of China Club, which was in charge of decorations, food and invitations, noted, “The erhu soloist was the highlight of the performances.”
Looking forward to next year’s festival, Seam noted, “This year the show was on a Saturday, but next year we might make it a Friday night.” Yang hopes that this event will slowly integrate itself into the EA tradition, while Stein continued, “Next year, [China Club] hopes to be even more involved in organizing the programming and deciding how best to structure and time the event.”
Yang concluded, “We do not see this just as a big party, but as an open classroom to showcase our Chinese program. Our students did an excellent job in all their shows, of which they should be proud…Together we brought more attention to our program at EA and we hope this will help our Mandarin students feel proud of what they chose to learn and… what they have learned.”