Chinese New Year

Went with some friends to Chinatown for Dim Sum before the semester started. It just so happened that there was a big festival for Chinese New Year going on when we got there!

Drum welcoming the lion into the street (Reminded me of playing in the Malaysian Drum Group.....)



Lion stopping at each store to eat the cabbage and oranges


This is what Chinatown is supposed to look like every day!!!!




Haha...candid photo


Linlee!


A couple lions came into the restaurant while we were eating


Probably Lion #7 we'd seen that day. The firecrackers were LOUD.




Later that week, ATS put on a Chinese New Year's celebration. Mike and I cooked sticky rice so we got free admission :)
The food was delicious and I was really impressed by the quality of performances they had. I was expecting multiple violin performances and not much else (like what my Oklahoma experiences taught me to anticipate), but was quite pleasantly surprised to hear excellent music from several traditional Chinese instruments. By the way, how do ABCs learn to play those????
Also, they had a couple Chinese Yo-Yo shows (see video below), Chinese A Cappella (ok this one was not so great....), and other musical performances.

I'm really amazed by how much more ATS (the group of undergrad ABCs) organizes events that showcase Taiwanese culture than ROCSA (the group of grad Taiwanese students) does.....
I guess if you're an international grad student, you're less interested in "showing off" your culture?? Not quite sure...




Chinese Yo-Yo set to some great music :)
I hope Robert is this good when he gets back from Taiwan.