February 18, 1992
News
10
Bringing in the New Year, Asian Style
By Yu-Yee Wu
Guest Writer
Some audiences show their
appreciation by whistling or
shouting. Others show their
appreciation by sitting in their seats
stoically. The audience members
at the Chinese New Year
celebration Feb. 3 in Great Hall,
did neither.
They clapped instead.
They clapped as loudly for the
older singer who sang, patriotic
songs in a crackling voice, as they
did for the younger, smooth-voiced
singer crooning Chinese ballads.
They clapped as steadily lo the
uptempo beat of a Janet Jackson
song, as they did to the slower
Chinese folk songs.
They clapped as
enthusiastically for the Black
Student Movement’s Opeyo
Dancers who moved rhythmically
lo the music, as they did for the oul-
of-synch shadow boxers, a groupof
nine men and women who
performed “Karate Kid” moves in
slow motion.
During the Lion Dance, where a
man dons a multi-colored, snakelike
“lion” with an enormous face and
bulging eyes, the audience clapped
thunderously for the bobbing and
prancing two-person “lion” when it
jumped deftly onto a small table.
For the young violin soloist, the
audience clapped as parents clap at
their children’s music recitals,
encouragingly and reassuringly,
even though someone taped the
young virtuoso’s sheet music to the
microphone, blocking her from
view.
The audience even clapped
heartily for the songs and speakers
they could not hear because the
microphones went out ot could not
understand because they did not
know Mandarin.
With so much noise created from
the clapping, the traditional setting
off of firecrackers was not missed.
The New Year’s celebration
commemorates the departure of a
man-eating sea monster, who was
scared away by the sound of bamboo
crackling in a fireplace and by the
noise made from the chopping of
food. For New Year’s, many people
recreate the noise that frightened
the monster away by setting off
firecrackers.
If the noise from the clapping
couldn’t have scared the monster
away this new year, the talking
probably could have. Snatches of
English could be heard
intermittently amid the continuous,
mingled chatter of Mandarin and
Taiwanese that filled the crowded
hall, for it was a night for getting
together with family and friends.
Children squabbled with each other
over toys, causing mothers to scold
them and grandmothers to soothe
them. Fathers discussed life and
politics with each other. Friends
were reunited; others met for the
first time.
And they all hungrily devoured
the pre-packaged dinner of white
rice, meat, vegetables and oranges,
relishing the meal as if they were
eating the sticky rice and sweet
candies common on New Year’s.
Coke and 7-Up replaced traditional
tea with more pop and fizz for the
festive occasion. Many a calloused
hand, worn with years of chopstick
use, held while plastic forks and
balanced Styrofoam boxes instead
of chopsticks and small rice bowls.
The audience’s hands were in
all shades and in all stages of wear.
Some hands were as while and
smooth as a lily, others were as
brown and bumpy as a dried pod of
a lotus flower. Big, rough hands
engulfed small, soft ones, but only
briefly; the smaller hands tugged
and wriggled themselves away to
find others of more equal size and :
softness to hold on to or to battle i
with.
Heads gray and white from
decades of New Years, peppered
the audience and mixed with other !
heads of various shades of black, i
brown and blond. Hair textures
ranged from kinky and coarse to
straight and fine; styles ran from ^
the cropped and angular lo the i
IcMig and level.
The celebration of the “Year of |
the Monkey”—a year for!
developing intelligence—
culminated in the distribution of i
prizes, a widespread tradition to ■
promote prosperity and good luck |
for the new year. A Chinese man ;
announced the winning numbers
in Mandarin and in English, while ’
a black woman and a Chinese j
woman handed out the prizes;
together. And the audience? j
They clapped. |
BLAST Program Designed to Train Future Leaders
Chief Justice; etc. The list goes on
and on.
1 am planning to launch such a
program. It will be named Black
Leadership Activists Strategy
Training. What I am saying is that
you can be a leader without running
for office. When a black child sees
you doing positive things in the
community you are greater than
Napolean in their eyes. Hopefully,
a spin-off can be implemented at
local high schools such as Chapel
Hill High and Norlhwood High
School in Pittsboro.
As staled before, the primary
purpose of the seminar is to raise up
salient black leadership for future
activism on UNC’s campus,
America and the world. It would
educate as well as motivate students
while they build lasting bonds of
friendships that can laier be utilized
for effective networking and
support, a facel of ujamaa. The
program will be open for all stiKlents,
faculty and staff. Target students
are freshmen and sophomores but it
is recognized that many students
come to stark realizations later in
their academic careers. Since
current leadership programs are
! designed exclusively for freshmen
i and sophomores (or, in the case of
I one program, you have to enier as a
! freshman),juniors,senicM’s and grad
I students are encouraged lo
participate in the seminar. Even if
1 your aspirations do not include
i becoming a leader you are still
i welcomed lo participate in order to
j gain knowledge and help strengthen
I the sense of community.
1 The seminar is still in its planning
stage and will not gel started until
next semester. There are several
obstacles to the program’s
implementation but the greatest one
is getting people to come lo it I
implore you, do not let three and a
half years go by before gelling active
in your jjeople’s future. I also
implore those who think it’s too late
to do anything, to not fold your
hands and throw in the towel. Now
is the lime because life does not get
from page 9
any easier as you get older. There
will always be things lo consume
your lime and energy. I only ask
that you make your people one of
them. I fully believe in the words of
Charles Houston, the man who had
the courage to take on Jim Crow
and the audacity lo win, “I would
rather die on my feet, than live on
my knees.”
We must look back at our past
and appreciate the brave and
successful so that we can envision
and strain toward fulfilling our
destiny. If you are interested in
such a program, contact me al 933-
8265 or holler at me on the yard.
Alula Continua (the struggle
continues)!
Special shout out to Huey P.
Newton. Happy Birtday brother!
(Feb. 17)
Arnie A. Epps
Habari Gani! Again it is in the
spirit of community that I come lo
you. An Ethiopian proverb says,
“He who learns teaches.” The
experiences I’ve had at this
University have been amazing. I’ve
learned that a man’s word really
doesn’t mean anything anymore.
Now is the lime where we as
African Americans must demand
ACTION. Action must not only
come from administrators but from
the grass rools of our community.
I’ve LEARNED, therefore I leach
that administrators on this campus
have given us nothing but void
promises that they aren’t willing
to stand behind. The Board of
Trustees passed a resolution on
December 1988 expressing their
support for the Black Cultural
BSM
Leader:
BCC Now!
Center and said it “recognizes the
successful beginning of the Black
Cultural Center and encourages
and supports the Facility Planning
Committee in its planning for i
adequate space.” This motion was
carried unanimously by the board.
No longer will we be diplomats
and sit at the table to negotiate that
which is already complete.
Chancellor Hardin must respect
the needs of African-American
students, faculty and staff. He
dismisses the notion of a new free
standing BCC and the compromise
students were willing to make for
Howell Hall. I’ve learned that
African Americans have struggled
for many things we have achieved
and dealing with the administration
will be no different. ALUTA
CONTINUA (THE STRUGGLE
CONTINUES).
Epps is president of the BSM-