Happy Chinese New Year of the tiger

The Chinese New Year, sharing Feb. 14 with Valentine's Day, was a very festive day.

The Confucius Institute at Alfred University organized a buffet dinner Feb. 13 and invited a group of dancers and singers to perform at Holmes Auditorium, Alfred University, in celebration of the Chinese new year of the tiger.

The Confucius Institute, with over 200 chapters worldwide, is a non-profit public institute which aims at promoting the Chinese language and culture through education across the globe. The Confucius Institute will sponsor another cultural show on campus in April – Alfred to Asia. Brought to you by the International Students and Scholars Organization, Alfred to Asia will feature a wide range of performances displaying the Chinese, Korean and Japanese cultures. The show will be on Sunday, April 11 at 7 p.m. in Holmes Auditorium.

Chao Gong, lecturer of arts and communication at the China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, led a group of over twenty students to promote Chinese culture through “Wonderful China,” a cultural show featuring Chinese instrumental performance, folk dance, Chinese opera, Tai Chi and so on.

“I am so happy to be here,” Gong said. “This is my first time to be in America, and it is completely different from what I thought it would be. The Hollywood movies I watched were mostly about violence, but now I am here, I realized that people are very nice. I hope people can experience and understand our culture better through tonight’s show too.”

President Charley Edmondson was equally happy with the night’s event.

“The music and the dancing were superb,” Edmondson said. “I am also very happy that we have the Confucius Institute here.”

The Confucius Institute at Alfred University, which is the only one of its kind in the state of New York, will organize an array of programs in hopes of introducing Chinese culture to the community.

“I am very excited that we will be offering more Chinese language classes at Alfred University in the coming year,” Edmondson said. “I think this will encourage more students to take an interest in China, and hopefully some of them will have the opportunity to go there and study in the Chinese universities.”

For more information about the show, contact the International Students and Scholars Organization at isso4u@alfred.edu.