Chinese Culture Week '03 -- MIT CSSA

Zhong Guo Ren
Chinese Culture Week '03
A joyful Chinese Culture Week
review by Shirley Xue Li '06

Hardly recovered from the frenzy of CPW, the MIT  campus was ushered into its annual spring fest by the Chinese Cultural  Fair.  Concluding a weeklong celebration of Chinese culture through movies  and seminars, the event offered a neat concoction of Chinese art, history,  and tradition.

A series of ten Chinese movies kicked off the Chinese Cultural Week  starting on Wednesday, April 16th.   From art-house favorites, such as  Farewell My Concubine and The Road Home, to recent blockbuster Hero, the  movies aimed to showcase a multifaceted culture whose presence on campus  is far from miniscule.  Scattered throughout the week were also seminars  focusing on China's today and its role in the world stage.

Organized by the Chinese Student Scholar Association, the fair consisted  of three main parts: a photo exhibition, booths, and performances.  "World  heritage sites in China" was the theme of this year's photo exhibition.  Passers-by caught glimpses of Western China's sweeping landscape and  Eastern China's rich history.

Featured at the booths were Chinese calligraphy, traditional painting, and  paper cutting.  Also available were souvenirs, art pieces, and authentic  Chinese cuisine-always the crowd pleaser.  From pastries to candies,  traditional favorites to recent fads, the food booths certainly attracted  a substantial crowd before the performances even started.

After President Vest's brief greeting, the performance portion of the fair  began with a dance by an all-female troupe.  Garbed in black and adorned  with long red ribbons, the dancers glided across the steps of the student  center accompanied by a countryside tune "Happy Festival".  Ribbon dance  is a rural China tradition in celebration of harvest, although the moves  were usually simplistic, the spirit was nonetheless jovial and uplifting.

From Harvard Chinese undergraduate student Gu Beidi then came a stirring  soprano solo.  Performing Tibetan folklore "Qing-Zang Highland", Ms. Gu  was a recent winner in the CSSA karaoke competition.  Her excellent  command of Tibetan-style vocalization drew loud cheers from the crowd.

Following was a piano solo from another Harvard student Dong Rui.  Ms.  Dong performed "The Butterflies", a perennial favorite that tells the tale  of Liang Shenbo and Zhu Yingtai-two tragic lovers long before the time of  Romeo and Juliet.  Ms. Dong's playing brought a rare silence as the tender  melody quietly sang of the regrets of a love never realized.

MIT graduate student Amanda Qian Wang then performed two violin solos,  "Spring Time Happiness" and "The Shepherd Song"-two well-known pieces that  originated in rural China and captured by modern composers.  The joyful  timbre of Ms. Wang's performance underlined the vibrancy of Chinese folk  music.  Many members of the audience, feeling nostalgic, even began to hum  along.

Making a guest appearance was the MIT Lion Dance Team, whose majestic  presence never failed to make a strong impression.  Grooving to the  thundering beats of the drum, the two "lions" greatly amused the audience  with their cabbage-spewing and wine-drinking stunts.

The liven atmosphere quickly softened for the Gu-Zheng performance by Yang  Xinyi, a top-level professional performer on this traditional Chinese  instrument.  Rumored to have been a passion of Confucius's, Gu-Zheng is a  stringed instrument that is played laying flat on a surface.  Ms. Yang's  rendition of traditional songs "Evening Boating" and "Stream in High  Mountain" accentuated the quiet, soothing nature of Chinese traditional  music.

Another traditional Chinese instrument featured was the Er-Hu, also known  as Chinese violin.  A two-stringed instrument that is played on the  performer's lap, Er-Hu brings a broad range and unique tone that have  proven irreplaceable in Chinese art.  Performing "The Moon on the Lake",  "Birds Coming Back to Woods", and "Horse Racing", professional musician  Lin Zhantao demonstrated perfectly why Er-Hu is often viewed as a national  symbol.

As a change of pace, multiple gold metals winner Christopher Wong put on  an unforgettable show of martial arts.  Brandishing his double dragon  swords, Mr. Wong dashed across the stage with amazing speed and agility.  Slashing, swirling, slicing his weapons through thin air, Mr. Wong dazzled  the audience with the precision and beauty of his movements.  Many members  of the audience naturally cheered along as Mr. Wong's swords danced on  with growing energy.

After the Kung Fu came more elegance.  The Chinese wedding ceremony  offered the audience a taste of the Chinese marital tradition. Covered in  the joyful shade of red silk, the bride joined her groom in bowing to the  audience and then their family.  An event of great importance and  happiness, the wedding ceremony has always been the key event in the lives  of, not just the happy couple, but their families.  For marriage is a  matter of great pride, and in Chinese tradition, family pride comes only  second to allegiance to one's nation.  This mock wedding underscored the  vital importance of filial devotion and family honor-two components never  lacking in any Chinese tradition.

Finally, MIT students and local Chinese shared the stage for a spectacular  display of traditional Chinese fashion.  Silk was of course the main  ingredient as men and women, dressed in cheongsam and frock coats, moved  across the stage in succession.   Slowly the stage was transformed into a  collage of bright colors: dabs of red, green, blue, adorned with patterned  golden threads, created a beautiful image that brought the fair to its  end.

All in all, the fair was a successful conclusion to a week of celebrating  Chinese culture.  Braving the still vicious early spring winds, the  performers and organizers delivered a lovely display of China's artistic  and cultural splendor.
Watch Online: Part 1 (62min), Part 2 (14min), Part 3 (13min), Part 4 (14min)
Download: Part 1 (484MB), Part 2 (165MB), Part 3 (156MB), Part 4 (168MB)
(You'll need RealPlayer to watch these video files. Enjoy!)