In honor of the New Year the Chinese Student Association held a grand celebration Sunday night, that filled Memorial Union Great Hall with nearly 700 people. Following the lunar calendar, January 31th was the first day of the year of the horse, one of the chinese twelve animals.

Many Asian countries follow this time setting. Hanxiao Hu, sophomore in journalism and mass communication and minister of the liberal arts of the CSSA said, “It is a Chinese tradition. We want to celebrate this tradition, keep track with it and don’t loose it.”

In China, the New Year is a 15 day long holiday. It’s a time to visit friends and family and to have dinner together.

“Parents will buy new cloth for their children and family members will give them red bags filled with money,” Hu said.

With the goal of connecting Iowa State’s Chinese Students and Ames Chinese families, the CSSA presented 12 performances. They displayed the wide variety of Chinese culture by mixing and tradition and modern day spirit.

Members of the association started the event with a humerus dance that lifted the crowds already high vitality even higher.

As the children of the Chinese Language School took the stage, the joyful audience greeted them with cheers, as they performed a well known Chinese children’s song called “Singing & Smile.”

Xuan Rong, vice president of the CSSA and senior in supply chain management translated a verse of the song.  

“They are singing, ‘Please leave your smiles here. Tomorrow my songs will fly all over the world, stressing the beauty of home and laughter,'” Rong said.

Rock songs and sketches in Chinese followed the traditional performance.

Six members of the CSSA performed a traditional dance. The girls danced with large pink fans that closed and opened with swift hand motions complimenting their flowing body movements.

In between set performances, the audience got involved by participating three lucky draws where the guests could win prizes from China.

The Iowa State juggling club asked for two volunteers to be part of their juggling and unicycling routine. The artists finished with a cheering crowd.

A violin and piano performance brought Chinese classical music to the event. 

Kimberly Woo, a junior in journalism and mass communication who had won second place in Asian Idol, performed her song “Bye Bye to Yesterday.” A song which she had written especially for this celebration.

“A time of reunion, with everyone you hadn’t seen. It is a crazy time of year. It is a happy atmosphere,” Woo said. 

The four anchors of the event ended the celebration with a final chorus of the words that had been said so many times in the hall. Their voices echoed the walls of the Great Hall as attendees joined each other in bringing in a new year saying, “xinnian kuaile!”