Photo Courtesy of Naomi Jiang ‘25
By Jesse Hausknecht-Brown ’25
Features Editor
Vibrant performances, upbeat dances and lively music flowed across the stage at the Chinese Cultural Association’s annual China Night. The event was held on Friday, Feb. 18 in Chapin Auditorium, which was packed with an energetic audience of students and community members.
“I feel like it [was] kind of surprising for me, because … we have sold out for like 160 tickets, which… [exceeded] my expectation,” Angie Zhu ’23, co-chair of the Chinese Cultural Association, said. “In the event before, the balcony [was] almost empty or only [at] like half of the capability. I think [it was] almost full when I was like seeing [it from] the stage on that day, so it was kind of surprising.”
Zhu explained that she was proud of all the work that the performers put in and how much time they dedicate to rehearsing. “They devote so much time to the show, and I was also touched by that,” Zhu said.
The event was hosted by the CCA and is an opportunity for Chinese students to share parts of their culture. Mount Holyoke College’s dance groups Sky Dance, Rainbow Jelly, ODM and Holy Street performed, along with solo dancers and singers. The night concluded with a fashion show of traditional Chinese clothing and contemporary outfits.
“I have seen how each [performer] gets started and practice[d] and practice[d] and finally brings a really impressive show on China Night,” Karry Wang ’23, co-chair of the CCA, said. “I have to sincerely thank every performer and every member of CCA.”
Zhu praised Georgia Shen ’25’s solo dance performance in particular.
“She can express [the] emotions which are behind the story and I felt like she really impresses lots of people by using her movements and she deserves to be one of the best,” Zhu said.
Shen explained that she hadn’t performed on stage in years. “I was extremely nervous to dance for a live audience, especially since I knew some of my friends were part of that audience. But it was also a bit exciting to be able to perform again and to hear the cheers of the crowd,” Shen said.
“We have a lot of new kinds of performances,” Zhu said. “We had Sherry [Chen ’25] to do the diabolo … and it’s very exciting for the audience and also a new way of performance [that] we have never seen before.”
A diabolo is an hourglass shaped object that slides along a string, which the performer holds, therefore being able to manipulate the diabolo’s movements to perform tricks.
Chen had never performed alone on stage before, but was thankful for the loud and supportive audience.
“A good thing about diabolo performances is that I spend most of the time looking at the diabolo, and I think that prevents me from getting too intimidated by the audience size,” Chen said. “I felt super happy to be back onstage.”
Zhu and Wang both danced in performances at the event. Zhu performed “We Still Have Each Other” and “Ambush” with the dance group Sky Dance, which centers traditional Chinese dance culture while combining elements of traditional and contemporary dance. Wang danced with groups Holy Street, Rainbow Jelly and performed a duet called “The Message” with Miranda Du ’23.
“We two are really happy to both perform and also [be part of the] organizing … team,” Zhu said.
Zhu had to handle new challenges of planning and running a large theatrical event. “I feel like the new stuff for us to explore [was] how to communicate between stage crews and performers and also [how to] publicize our event,” Zhu said.
Additionally, half of the CCA’s 29 members were performing in the program, which made logistical planning laborious.
“It’s kind of difficult to have a plan of what each member should do on that day or before the day, so it’s kind of hard to manage such a huge team and how to … have an equal distribution of the work,” Zhu said. “I felt like that was the new stuff for me and that’s what [was] really a challenge.”
The performers went through dress rehearsals in Chapin Auditorium during the week leading up to the event. Zhu described the hectic process of pulling everything together during that week.
“I feel like it was especially busy for the week before the event because we were tabling in Blanch to sell tickets, but we are also having the rehearsal slots in Chapin for every single day before the actual event. So that week was really busy,” Zhu said. “We also [had] to do the decoration. So it’s like we [were] having the rehearsal and decorations and then tickets — the whole thing in a week. So that was stressful.”
The CCA started advertising the audition process in November and went on to hold auditions during the first week of the spring semester. They also worked on making posters, creating the event on Embark, collaborating with the Student Involvement Office and reaching out to stage crews to help run the show.
China Night has become an annual tradition for the CCA and celebrates the Chinese New Year, which was on Feb. 1, even though it took place about three weeks afterwards.
“Under this pandemic period, most Chinese and international students are not able to go back home during the winter break,” Wang said. “This event celebrating Chinese New Year is really important to each of us. Thus, conveying Chinese traditional culture really creates a homelike environment for us.”
Zhu described how, because of when the spring semester started, they weren’t able to hold the event any closer to the Chinese New Year, but still enjoyed being able to celebrate the holiday in the community environment.
Zhu said, “I felt like the main goal is still to celebrate the Chinese New Year and also [to provide] a chance for all the students to show our culture … [and to show] something very diverse about Chinese culture.”