Lunar New Year Under the Pines

The Chinese Culture Club kicked off an early celebration of Lunar New Year today with a memorable Upper School Assembly featuring an array of instrumental, choral, and dance performances in Taylor Gymnasium.

The assembly opened with traditional musical selections from the New Haven Chinese Cultural Cooperative, a newly formed community group that boasts several Hamden Hall musicians. The ensemble included Mandarin teacher Margaret Wei, seniors Raymond Luo and Mark Yan, sophomore Lan Liu, Hamden Hall past parent Mark Eggerman, and other musicians. The four musical pieces featured an ensemble of different instruments including the guzheng, erhu, yangqin, dizi, double bass, and flute among others.

The non-profit ensemble seeks to promote awareness in Greater New Haven about the Chinese and Taiwanese culture through musical performances and cultural presentations.

Prior to the next performance, sophomores Jiali Yang and Pureaf Ye spoke to the audience about the meaning and traditions of Lunar New Year before asking a few questions in a trivia style game. The assembly transitioned to the dance performances. Taking the floor were dancers from the Mulan Dance School. Under the direction of Ms. Jichun Sun, the dancers performed a selection of traditional dance styles including a Mongolian piece and a jazz-style duet that showcased grace, strength, and resilience. The Hamden Hall Dance Club also performed an original dance mixing traditional elements with hip hop for the audience.

Lending their voices to the event were Upper School choralists seniors Eric He and Raymond Luo and sophomores Alex Pu and Jason Xie who performed an upbeat song by a Hong Kong Cantopop male group called Grasshopper. Closing out the assembly performance was the final dance performance called The Whipping Dance followed by the traditional dragon dance with a team of Upper School students using poles to rhythmically move a dragon prop across the gymnasium floor.

The Middle School community also enjoyed the performance assembly in the afternoon in the Taylor Performing Arts Center. Other Lunar New Year celebrations will take place in the Lower School in the upcoming weeks.