TCSSA preps for Chinese New Year

The Tulane Chinese Students and Scholars Association will host a Spring Festival celebration Feb. 13 in honor of the lunar Chinese New Year. There will be music and dancing performances, traditional games and Chinese food. The TCSSA invited other local Chinese associations, as well as their foreign and American friends.

The TCSSA is hoping many non-Chinese students will join them in celebrating the new year.

“Since there are more people learning Chinese here in the United States, I am sure the Chinese culture will be attractive to them,” TCSSA Vice President Molly Hu said. “In order to let them experience what we did in China, we want to have some Chinese traditional events on campus.”

People traditionally wear red for the Spring Festival, though it is not required. Chinese mythology says that there once was a monster who would always eat people on the New Year, but then one day a child wore red and scared the monster away.

“To celebrate the New Year we wear red colors because the monster is afraid of the red,” Hu said.

Freshman Kyle Yang will host the evening party, announcing and introducing each performance.

“I’m going to say some crazy words and do some crazy things, like playing the games rough and tough,” said Yang. “If it is very interesting and chaotic, it’ll be fun.”

For freshman Chinese students, this will be their first Chinese New Year away from home.

“We’ll be celebrating it in a different atmosphere in a different country,” freshman Andy Gao said. “It will be both good and bad because you cannot celebrate it with your family, but you can celebrate with your friends, which I have never experienced before.”

Some students said they look forward to the change.

“It will be different in a good way,” Yang said. “I’ve always been with my family, and that can get boring sometimes.”

Hu said one of the reasons they have the Spring Festival party is to establish the community that they are missing from China, and celebrate together.

“Since we usually get together with our families at home, now it’s like a big family when we all get together,” Hu said. “It’s a way to make everyone feel at home.”

But not all Chinese students are excited for the Spring Festival celebration.

“I’m not sure I’ll go because it’s right in Mardi Gras, and it’s not that important to me,” freshman Patrick Chen said. “I never celebrated it that much at home in Shanghai.”

The TCSSA will also be holding a Spring Festival Mart Feb. 9 - 12 in the Pederson lobby of the Lavin-Bernick Center. They will be selling traditional Chinese goods including movies, art and calligraphy. They will also sell tickets to the Spring Festival celebration Feb. 13 for $5 for non-members. It is $10 for non-members at the door, and free for all members.