2006 Chinese Spring Festival Welcomes the Year of Dog

2006 Chinese Spring Festival was held by the Chinese Student and Scholar Association (CSSA) at University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) in Leach Theater on January 29, 2006.

Hosted by Yaxin Bao, Man Zheng and Miao Sun, the show attracted over 700 people on and off campus with a unique cultural experience. The show started with the speeches from Chancellor Carney, Gene Beyer from the Office of International Affairs, and the advisor of CSSA - Jerry Tien; they shared their understanding of Chinese culture and spring festival and extended their greetings of the dog year to everyone present.

The performance started off with the children’s chorus, which was humorous to watch and brought laughter to the whole audience. Following programs included the Fan and Silk Dance, fiddle solo Symphony of the Spring Festival, Children’s Double Handkerchief Dance, and A Love Before Time, the theme song of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. A Chinese traditional cross-talk was focused on some friendly fabricated stories around former president of CSSA; the two performers, Hai Lan and Yi Zheng, did a great job by digging out every funny moments in the typical lives of UMR graduate students, but their performance gave the non-Chinese audience a great challenge because it was in Chinese only. The first surprise in the show was given by several Chinese female students’ enthralling dancing in Thousand-Hand Buddha Dance, their gorgeous costumes and amazing dancing made themselves a great impression to everyone, and they also received broad praises after the show was released on the Internet. After a Chinese Zither solo, another hit of the show made its debut, an adapted version of Turandot. The well-known legend was modernized to fit into the UMR campus; and with the English script shown on the background, both Chinese and non-Chinese audience enjoyed the story very well. Finally, the show ended with an Erhu solo, a piano solo and a Liuyang River Dance by CSSA of Missouri State University.

After the show, a well-prepared dinner was served at the Havener Center and it was so popular that many people need to wait in queue for at least twenty minutes to get a bite. Many Chinese volunteers made a lot of effort for this dinner, no wonder Jerry Tien claimed that it was prepared by the “most educated” set of cooks in Missouri.

Video of "Turandot" in 2006 Spring Festival Show