Daily Deacon

Culture at WFU: Celebrating the Chinese New Year – Meg

When you first enter the Barn, you are welcomed by greeters and handed a red packet containing a chocolate coin for good luck. The walls are decorated with paper cutouts of Chinese characters and little dragon puppets. The rafters are strung with red paper lanterns and a large banner proclaiming the annual Chinese New Year festival. The smells of foreign food waft your way. The entire lower level of the Barn is filled with a mixture of Wake students and Winston-Salem natives. On the stage, traditional singing and dancing acts celebrate this important day in the Chinese culture.

Saturday, February 13, the WFU Asian Student Interest Association (ASIA) hosted its Chinese Lunar New Year Festival from 3:00-5:00PM. The event offered free admission to everyone.

This Chinese holiday celebrates the transition from an old year to a new one. It is when families gather and share what they have experienced over the past year and their hopes for the new one. The date of the New Year is from the lunar calendar and falls on a different day than the Western celebration.

While the holiday is national, it also extends to any country that was once under China’s rule, including Indonesia and Vietnam. However, within China, the activities of the day vary by region.

“In my hometown, we have the dragon dance and visit the flower market since in the South, that’s when the most rare flowers bloom,” says Jonnie Huang, a senior at Wake Forest University from Guangdong, China. She says it is important for her to attend these cultural events on campus because it gives her a chance to continue her Chinese traditions away from home.

The Chinese New Year is one of the few national holidays celebrated by all regions of China. IT includes a family reunion, watching the celebrations on TV, and fireworks after midnight.

“It’s like the Super Bowl in America,” says YoonSun Jee, a member of ASIA and sophomore at Wake Forest University. Even though she is from South Korea, Jee says she has learned a lot more about the holiday from working the event. According to her, Wake lacks diversity and the Chinese New Year Festival acts as one of the few events on campus that brings people together and offers an immersive chance to understand Chinese culture.

“Wake has a lot of international students; it’s important that we can make them feel at home and have a chance to relate to them,” says Lindsey Badgett, sophomore from Pinnacle, North Carolina. She is a member of the Japanese club on campus and attended the event to expand her exposure to East-Asian cultures.

“In my opinion, having events like this on campus is very important because the best way to understand other people is through their culture,” says Badgett.