Joshua Ceballos/Assistant News Director
The Chinese Language Department is hosting a gala to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
This celebration will be held in the School of International and Public Affairs Room 125 on Friday, Feb. 16, from 7 to 9 p.m.
Dr. Li Ma, a professor of Chinese and the coordinator for the Chinese Program at FIU, is one of the organizers of the event, and is very eager for all students to join in the festivities.
Ma said in an interview with Student Media that this gala is commemorative of the Chinese Year of the Dog, but it’s also a way to connect to the community and to make more students aware of the Chinese program at FIU and its benefits.
“We want to bring awareness to the Chinese program [with this gala] because Chinese is the most spoken first language in the world, and it holds very important economic roles in Miami specifically,” said Ma. “China has a lot of trade connections with Miami and Latin America, but unfortunately not many students know that we offer Chinese here at FIU.”
The celebration will feature performances by the FIU Chinese Club, the Confucius Institute at Miami Dade College, HuaMei Children’s Performing Arts Group, among many others.
The groups will be delivering various kinds of performances including ballet, kung fu, traditional Chinese instrument playing, and the lion dance.
“Lion dance is very popular in overseas communities, while in mainland China we don’t see it much… I think because for overseas Chinese, we’re nostalgic, so we hold onto tradition of China as we remember it,” said Ma.
Ma said that customs have changed in China and have changed in the modern day. One such tradition, the gifting of red envelopes filled with money to family members for the new year, has gone under a transformation.
In modern China there are different ways of celebrating the new year… now instead of giving the traditional red envelope with money, they send money through WeChat [a Chinese multipurpose social media app], and we call it an electronic red envelope,” said Ma.
All are invited to come to the gala on Friday, and some students in the Chinese program are already looking forward to experiencing the cultural festivities.
“[New Year] is very important to the Chinese people. I performed with a classmate at the gala last year and it was really fun, so I’m looking forward to the performances this year,” said Jacob Foley, a senior psychology and Asian studies double major.
Foley said that he started studying at FIU in 2012, and though he was close to graduating, he discovered a love for Chinese and stayed on with a new major.
Camila Rodriguez is a junior international relations and Asian studies double major, and she said that she’s looking forward to connecting to the Chinese community in the area at the gala.
“I don’t know a lot of Chinese people, so any exposure I can get to the culture and any chance to see this community first hand is very interesting,” said Rodriguez. “It’s important to be a global citizen and learn about other cultures in order to be more accepting of others.”
Foley and Rodriguez both encouraged students to come to the event, if only for a short while in order to get to know about Chinese at FIU, and then consider taking it up as a language course.
Ma said that should anyone be interested in attending, they should arrive early in order to find seating or standing space in SIPA 125 so they can properly enjoy the festivities.
Photo courtesy of FIU Chinese Club
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