Generations Celebrates Chinese Culture Through Tradition

The Chinese Students Club is an extremely organized and well-run association on campus. From providing strong ties between Columbia and the Chinese community, to organizing community service events, to providing links on their website to jobs and internships, the CSC is a powerful force on campus and has much to offer for its members.

Having never attended Lunar Gala until this year, I really didn't know what to expect.

One thing I observed immediately was that despite steep ticket prices, the event was able to sell out the entire floor of Roone Arledge Auditorium (although many had to suffer through bad views of the stage, marked "the second section"). The ticket proceeds, though, do not fund the show; they are instead donated to the Asian American Foundation. As musicals and other culture shows have found, it's hard to sell out all of the Arledge Auditorium. So what makes Lunar Gala different?

What's different about Lunar Gala is that it receives a tremendous amount of support from the Chinese student community at Columbia.

Lunar Gala is a celebration of the Chinese New Year (year of the Ram). The show, entitled "Generations," was extremely well put together. A digital host, May Ling, greeted the audience and introduced emcees Hubert Lin, SEAS '05, and Sandy Huang, CC '05, who provided interlude entertainment between the skits in the first part of the show, which was a celebration of Chinese culture through dance, skits, and song.

The first skit of the night was an impressive Lion Dance performed and choreographed by the CSC Lion Dance Troupe. The Lion Dance, described as "a bridge between the traditional style of Lion Dance with the modern Genting style," is based on an ancient legend that a great beast, who once terrorized Southern China, was scared out of the village when a young man made a ferocious lion costume accompanied by drums, cymbals, and gongs. The pounding beat of the drums and the fluid, colorful movement of lion dancers showed a great degree of dance skill. The tradition of the Lion Dance was admirably upheld in "Generations," providing a strong foundation at the beginning of the show.

Two other dances also were part of the culture show. First was a handkerchief dance choreographed by Jing Wang, SEAS '03, entitled "Tradition," which provided a low-key, yet extremely beautiful, array of dancers displaying the proficiency associated with this difficult Chinese folk dance. The second dance, entitled "Transcend," combined modern Chinese Dance--the Fan Dance and the Ribbon Dance, choreographed by Jasmine Tang, CC '06--with a modern dance with a hip-hop edge, choreographed by Tze-Cheng Chun, CC '06, and Wooseok Shim, SEAS '06.

The emcees were particularly entertaining. Working with their digital host May Ling, Hubert and Sandy were able to introduce each skit in a funny and entertaining manner, including some playful personal assails and a playoff of Sandy's jealousy over Hubert's crush on the "hot digital host."

The fashion show was truly the main event. Forty-two beautiful models walked up and down the runway modeling clothes from a variety of designers, most notably Nautica and Club Monaco. But the designer clothes were by no means the only thing to watch for. During each designer segment, the models moved in choreographed sets. For Club Monaco, the models donned black bowler hats and canes, moving into different formations and movements that reminded me of something right out of the big dance productions of 1930s cinema.

Jennifer Yu, SEAS '03 and co-producer of the fashion show, said that the process of auditioning models and contacting designers began in September. "Rehearsals started in the middle of October, and practices were lighter in the fall semester," she said. "But since winter break, we have been rehearsing each scene for at least an hour a week."

The dedication of the models was obvious. Good-looking, disciplined, and focused, they showed off the designer's wares with grace and style, giving the fashion show the professional look and feel it hoped to attain.

In a special segment called "I Love New York," the students modeled different clothes created from "I Love NY" shirts. From ripped shirts to bikini tops, each student designer had a specific vision for how to make their NY design stand out. Appropriately, the student designers accompanied their models in a separate spin down the runway to enable the audience to honor their creativity and skill.

In a school of few traditions, Lunar Gala serves as a mainstay for the Columbia community. This year's show, "Generations," lived up to the Columbia community's expectations for an admirable work that truly honors Chinese culture as well as highlighting the hard work and dedication for which Columbia students are known. Emcee Hubert Lin, SEAS '05, summed it all up perfectly: "The culture show and fashion show ran seamlessly, and there was never a dead moment. It's a feeling like nothing else to take so much responsibility in a project like this and have it become a huge success."