Year of the Horse Brings Lively Spirit to College

Author: Cara Lovell

In China, Korea, Vietnam and other Asian countries, the New Year is a time to come together in the spirit of a new beginning. In the McCullough Social Space last Sunday, the Lunar New Year celebration was a chance for the Middlebury Asian Students Organization (MASO) to enjoy the community they have created and to embrace the Middlebury College and local communities as well.

The program expressed the organization's goal "to bring students of Asian descent closer to the community, while at the same time bringing the community closer to the ideas associated with Asian culture, customs and language."

The group accomplished its mission on this important holiday by sharing traditional music, dance, food and fun. Students gathered in McCullough to enjoy free Asian food cooked by the students themselves, to have their names written in Chinese calligraphy and to watch performances of music, dance and martial arts — often in traditional dress.

The performances embodied this generation's balance of old and new. Emcees WonChan Park '04 and Morgan Jones '04 interspersed both history and humor in their presentation of the varied cultural performances. The first dramatic demonstration of staff kung fu incorporated both comedy and tradition in a mock face-off between Sunny Park '02 and Josh Richards '02. Emi Kubota '02 and her group Taka Sego performed a traditional dance Japanese dance involving slow and deliberate movement.

A dynamic breakdancing demonstration by David Yi '04 and Jones contrasted with the traditional performances. Haunting melodies of the Asian tradition were brought out in a Vietnamese song performed by Quynh Nguyen '03 and in duets on the koto, a kind of Japanese zither with 13 strings, played by Visiting Lecturer in Japanese Kyoko Davis and her friend Emily Chenot.

Reflecting modern musical influences, Janine Pedro '02 sang "First Love" in Japanese, with Steve Liu '03 accompanying her on the piano. The College students and faculty were joined by Middlebury Union High School students Michael Sun Vanacore and Tara Sun Vanacore, who played a Chinese folk song and a jazz duet on piano and flute, respectively.

The Lunar New Year is celebrated in Asia on the first new moon of the year, based on the lunar calendar. The year 2002, the Year of the Horse, began on Feb.12. In all Asian cultures the New Year is celebrated with an emphasis on the family and a fresh beginning. In China, houses are cleaned and regrets from the past year are left behind as celebrants think only the best thoughts for the future. Parades feature giant paper dragons, and fireworks are set off to scare away the monster Nian, whose name means 'year.'

In Korea, the three-day celebration highlights the importance of respecting one's parents, while the holiday in Vietnam, known as Tet, is centered around the metaphor of one being a visitor of the new year. MASO Vice President Rui Bing Zheng '04 said that the essence of the holiday is families taking time off to be together and, of course, enjoying an excellent dinner.

Many Asian students may find it impossible to replicate their family celebrations on campus. Nevertheless, thanks to MASO, students have the opportunity to share their rich culture with a new community.