On Jan. 18th, Chinese classes celebrated the Chinese New Year in the atrium. Vanessa Cui and Chin Hsein Pan, high school Chinese teachers, helped to organize the event.

“With Ms.Pan, we both helped to organize the lion dance,” Vanessa Cui, a participant in the event, said. “After recruiting students interested in joining the event, we trained them to practice the lion dance. They learned how to hold the lion costume’s head and look right, left, up, and down. During the actual event, Ms. Pan explained what the lions were doing, and I took care of the music.”

Students dressed in traditional Chinese New Year dresses during the event. Before the lion dance, there were kung fu performances. Students also introduced and taught new year greetings to Gray Macklin, high school principal, who was there to watch and support the celebration event. 

“I would say the hard work paid off,” Chin Hsien Pan, another participant, said. “Recruiting the students took a couple of weeks and when we had two lions, we only had three students. We had to frequently be in meetings to build practice routines, watching lion dance videos and taking notes. We also practiced during the weekend, and after the successful performance, I felt very accomplished. I am proud of the lion dancers.”