Dr. Henry Lee, Internationally-Acclaimed Forensics Detective, at CLSC's New Year Festival!

Year of the Tiger Celebrating the Chinese New Year
Posted on 02/07/2010

Year of the Tiger Celebrating the Chinese New Year

STAMFORD

RELATED PHOTOS
Photo/Alex von Kleydorff. 13 yr old Grant Wang and 14 yr old Emily Serven along with others prepare for the Chinese Dragon dance during Chinese New Year celebration.

By JAMES NASH

Hour Correspondent


With music, dance, folk performances and cuisine, The Year of the Tiger was welcomed Sunday at the Stamford Plaza Hotel and Conference Center by about 400 celebrants of the Chinese Language School of Connecticut's [CLSC] Eighth Annual Chinese Year Festival. The event was in anticipation of the Feb. 14, 2010 Chinese New Year.

Arriving adults and children were greeted by the Erhu, Dizi and Yangquin Music Trio, member musicians of the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York, who played the 12 string Chinese fiddle, bamboo flute and yangqin or dulcimer.

The banquet luncheon included a Dragon Dance performance by CLSC students whose movements symbolized dragon power and dignity. In Chinese lore dragons are also symbolic of good luck and wisdom, and tigers are noted for bravery.

As a banquet lunch was being served, CLSC Director of Art and Culture Katy Chen Myers readied a small, colorful theater front draped with a latex curtain. Myers was preparing for the shadow puppet performance of "The Jade Rabbit, the Story of Farmer Zhu." Myers said CLSC cultural themes change yearly, and students write their own interpretations of stories such as the tale of the rabbit bestowed a palace on the moon by a Chinese emperor.

"Part of our cultural program is to integrate all aspects of Chinese theater," Myers said. "This puppet theater is teaching about Chinese folklore and mythology. It's based on a model of a real puppet theater. They're traveling shows, like a circus. This is probably the only shadow puppet theater in Fairfield County."

At one the three dozen banquet tables, CLSC President Susan Serven took a moment to explain how CLSC was started. Serven said she had enrolled a daughter she had adopted from China into a "heritage school" which is mostly geared to people who speak Chinese at home.

So Serven founded CLSC eight years ago with about a dozen other people who were interested in the teaching of Mandarin as a second language. She said the school has touched many lives.

"We impact about 1,000 students a year" she said.

The CLSC holds classes at the Eastern Middle School in Riverside and at the Greenwich Family Y. The CLSC offers programs for toddlers as young as 18 months, individual instruction, as well as lessons for people seeking language knowledge for career purposes.

"We have private instruction, summer classes, before and after school classes and a corporate program," Serven said.

CLSC programs are intended to enable students to acquire practical communication skills, develop competence and confidence while experiencing the joy of learning another language.

Attending the festival, the world renowned forensic expert and University of New Haven professor Dr. Henry Lee said he has friends who teach at the school which he said is growing and representative of America in it diverse student population.

"In the spirit of the United States, it's just like a typical melting pot," Lee said.

A folk dance was performed by the Phoenix Performing Arts that featured lively, flexible step, wrist and neck movements. A wedding parade, using a hand-carried, covered bridal "sedan" was also enacted by children and narrated by Meyers who explained Chinese matrimonial rituals.

The festival's scheduled guests included Grace Chang, children's author of the "Jin Jin The Dragon" books, and a performance by Columbia University's Lion Dance Troupe.

Festival Chair Samantha Wu Connell took a minute from attending to the many celebration details to watch children and parents enjoying the food and performances.

"I'm absolutely thrilled with the turnout and the enthusiasm," she said. "It's really just been incredible."

Her husband Dan Connell was busy keeping tabs on the couple's seven and four year-old children who both attended CLSC. He spoke highly of the school.

"It's language, it's culture. It's a really fantastic program," Connell said.

CLSC information is available at www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org. The school's phone number is 866-301-4906.